Kate King
Anyone who’s met the affable Kate King, president/CEO of the Napa Chamber of Commerce, can vouch for a certain enthusiasm and flair. She comes to this showmanship naturally. A younger Ms. King enjoyed stage acting, including portraying Helen Keller in a high school production of “The Miracle Worker,” just one of many heralded performances. “I always wanted to get a standing ovation during a curtain call, and I was fortunate to get several in the days I did theater,” she reflects. Her final appearance, in 1998, came “when I was in ‘Rumors’ in the theater I helped create in Oceanside, Calif.”
But lest you think her personality and background make her a pushover, take note: King is also an avid trapshootist who’s taken the top prize more than once.
Before finding her niche as a Chamber executive nearly 15 years ago, King was a professional fund-raiser for a multi-county medical center, and director of development for a semi-professional theater in Solano County.
Are you a high- or low-maintenance person?
Absolutely high. It takes a lot of time, money and effort to achieve this natural beauty.
Describe your dream home.
It would be a ranch-style home on some land where I could have horses (and where I could hire people to do all the work it takes to maintain it all).
Have you forgiven yourself for past personal failures?
Why dwell on something that helped me learn a good lesson?
How did you meet your spouse?
I made an in-person cold call to ask his client to donate $10,000 to sponsor a charity golf tournament. I eventually got the money and the man!
What’s a favorite tradition?
Joe [Turner] and I married on Christmas Eve, 2000. We started our ceremony with a bagpiper playing “Amazing Grace.” Every year, we have a bagpiper come and play for us and about 30 folks who also enjoy it. (Eight years of doing something constitutes a tradition, doesn’t it?)
If you could go back in time to any era, what date would you choose?
I’d go back to the days of the wild, wild west. I’d be either a saloon girl or a cowgirl.
What do you do to get yourself out of a bad mood?
Listen to Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood” or go get a massage.
What’s one thing you know for sure?
You can’t know how to do everything, so hire people who are smarter than you are.
What’s something you intended to do today but didn’t? Why not?
Finish filling out my membership application for the gym and take it over there. Do you really need to ask why not?
What’s the wackiest belief you held as a child or a young adult?
I thought it could rain frogs. On a road trip from my home state of Colorado up to Iowa, we went through a driving rainstorm. Frogs were leaping all over the road (from the trenches on the side of the road, I guess) and they jumped so high that they were hitting the hood of the car. My dad told me it was raining frogs and I believed him. For years, I kept waiting for that to happen again.
What do you love to do outside of work?
Trapshooting, reading, going to the movies, traveling and just kicking back with my husband and our cute little dog, Crouton.
What’s the appeal of trapshooting?
I’ve been trapshooting for about five years and shotgun shooting for about seven. I’ve been in two “holiday meat shoots,” in which you compete against four other people at a time in elimination rounds. Both times I’ve won against four long-time shooting gentlemen. The prizes are turkey for the Thanksgiving Shoot and corned beef brisket for the St. Patrick’s Day Shoot. They’re just for fun, mostly—but I loved beating guys who thought I wouldn’t be able to handle the pressure!
Who was your favorite teacher in school, and for what subject?
Mrs. Jewel, our speech teacher, was about 100 years old. She was cranky and mean, and I never got past the first two sentences of any speech I tried to give. But she made me a better public speaker by terrorizing me. I guess if I could survive Mrs. Jewel’s class, I could survive any speech in front of a group of mere mortals.
If you were to be recognized by posterity for one thing, what would you like to be known for?
Being honest and having the highest integrity—even when no one was watching.
