Paul Norman King was born May 4, 1938, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Ruth and Norman King. His family moved to Seminole when Paul was 18, but Paul remained an avid Steelers fan the rest of his life. He got a job at General Telephone Company and went house-to-house to change the insert in the rotary phones when numbers were changing from five digits to seven digits, or when the change was from an alphabetic prefix to a numeric prefix. After the family moved to Florida, Paul married Anita, also from the Pittsburgh area. Son, Mike was their first born followed by Tracey and Scott. Paul continued moving up in the phone company, climbing poles. Eventually Paul moved into management and spent
many years working in Sarasota and Bradenton while maintaining his home in Seminole. Countless trips across the old Sunshine Skyway were boring so, like many at the time, Paul took up CB radio activity and would talk with his buddies along the way. About this time Smokey and the Bandit was so very popular and of course, Paul adopted the handle, Bandit. Every car he had after that time had the personalized vanity license tag, "BANDIT C".
Paul met the love of his life, Pat or Patty about that time as he was sailing Hobie Cats at Dunedin Causeway. A couple of years later they entered a very fulfilling marriage until her passing in 2022. Paul continued his upward climb in the phone company, known as Verizon by that time. He became involved in government relations for the company, and was a lobbyist in Tallahassee and Washington, a position from which he retired while still quite young. In 1993 Paul and Pat bought their first of four cabins in the Ellijay-Blue Ridge, Georgia area. He still was full of energy and a need to serve led him to involvement in PGA golf tournaments. A lifetime love of golf led him to be a marshal at the Pepsi Cola Mixed Team Classic at Bardmoor North Course in 1977. Paul had found his niche and promptly moved up in the ranks to oversee all marshals. The tournament became the J C Penney Mixed Team Classic and relocated to the Innisbrook Resort in Tarpon. The Senior PGA Tour initiated a golf
tournament in Lutz and Paul was asked to work at that tournament. Eventually Paul became Operations Director which became a four month or so full-time job. Paul was fortunate to be paired with the great Arnold Palmer in one of the ProAm tournaments. He and Pat worked that tournament until the sponsorship was lost and the tournament went away. He worked in a similar position in Iowa for a couple of years. Paul continued to be involved in PGA tournament golf as the locker room manager at the Valspar Tournament at Innisbrook, which is what the
mixed team tournament had become. He continued at that position until two years ago when the long drive and traffic, as well as long days, got to be too much.
Paul loved nice automobiles and owned several Corvettes, being active in the West Florida Corvette Association. Because of that love he became a member of the International Motor Sports Association and drove the pace car for the Twenty-Four Hours of Daytona and the Twelve Hours of Sebring for several years.
Paul was very much the detail person! That is one reason why he was asked to be an organizing force in so many organizations. He was first vice president of the Seminole Lake Country Club Homeowners' Association and cherished his duties there.
Paul became a member of the Madeira Beach Masonic Lodge and the Tampa Consistory many years ago. Paul joined the Rotary Club of Seminole in 1966 and served as president in 1981- 1982, having served as the chairman of the Annual Turkey Shoot, the major
fundraiser at the time. He was very active in Rotary and served on the Golf Tournament Committee from the tournament's inception almost forty years ago through the most recent event this past April. Paul was a multi-Paul Harris Fellow and was the anonymous contributor for numerous fellowships and because of his many years of giving was recognized by the Rotary Foundation as a member of Club 365. Paul believed in helping others through the donation of his blood, donating more than thirty gallons of blood to the blood bank. He was chairman of the Rotary Blood Bank Committee for many years and was instrumental in the acquisition of the first blood mobile. The Rotary Club of Seminole along with the
four other clubs in south Pinellas raised the funds to purchase that bus. Paul served his Church, Seminole United Methodist Church as Sunday School Superintendent, Pastoral Relations Committee member and Long-Range Planning Committee member. While working in Bradenton he was on the Board of Directors of the Boys' Club of Manatee County.

Paul held a golf membership at East Bay Country Club, Countryside Country Club and for the past thirty plus years a member of Seminole Lake Country Club, chairing the "Friday Night Group's" weekly get together. Paul served on the Board of Directors of the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club.
Paul was always involved in the Seminole Community, serving as President of the Greater Seminole Area Chamber of Commerce and later, for a short time, as the Chamber's Executive Director and was able to steer the organization in the right direction at a time that it was floundering.

Paul is survived by son Mike and his wife, Tammie and daughter, Tracey Williams, granddaughters Tiffany and husband, Tim Corbett, and Tara and Ryan Dixon, as well as great grandchildren Mason and Audrey Corbett and Rhett and Tatum Dixon. Many lifelong friends will cherish the memories made with Paul and Pat.

Donations may be made in his memory to Rotary Club of Seminole charitable fund
After a period of declining health, Paul passed away in the early morning of October 10, 2025. Funeral service will be held at Lewis W. Mohn Funeral Home, 9700 Seminole Boulevard in Seminole. Visitation will commence at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 16, 2025, with the service following. Celebration of Life will be at Seminole Lake Country Club immediately after the service.