Duncan Lowrie King, 60, a Montpelier native whose professional contributions in the mining and processing of western phosphate rock brought national and international recognition, died at 6 a.m. Monday, December 29, 1969 in the Bear Lake Memorial hospital following an illness of several months. He was former manager and president of San Francisco Chemical Company, which dissolved early in the year and is now a division of Stauffer Chemical Company. Mr King retired in March, hoping to enter a consulting field. Mr. King was born June 14, 1909, the only son of Dr. Harry H. and Annie Lowrie King in Montpelier. He was known locally as "Lowrie" and as "Scotty" by professional and other friends. Educated in local schools, Mr. King was a member of the first class to enter the Lincoln School in 1915 and graduated from Montpelier High School with the class of 1927. His interest in phosphate began as early as 1924 under the tutelage of the late Joseph J. Taylor, an internationally renowned engineer and resident manager of the San Francisco Chemical Company between 1906 and 1932. Mr. King graduated from the University of Wyoming at Laramie in 1931 with a curriculum of basic engineering subjects, graduate level in field work geology and courses in metallurgy and chemistry. During summer vacations he worked at the famous old Waterloo Mine in Montpelier Canyon, in those days a small tonnage producing mine. In 1931 Mr. King went to Redding, California, where he was employed by the parent company, The Mountain Copper Company, Ltd., in their gold properties in Shasta County. He began as sample preparation man, then became assayer, assistant cyanide plant superintendent and gold refinery operator, and finally was promoted to general mill superintendent of the cyanide plant. On closure of gold mines in the United States in 1942, he moved to Happy Camp, California, where he was employed by Newmont Mining corporation at their Gray Eagle copper mine. His work involved design and construction integration leading to the position of general mill superintendent of crushing and flotation plants. After completing the Gray Eagle job in June of 1945, Mr. King returned to Montpelier for the purpose of conducting an experimental stripping operation at the Waterloo Mine, From a small, rented office downtown, he began organizing and planning a complex which was to attain a major stature, employing at one time 400 men with an annual payroll of $3 million, the greater part of it, within the Bear Lake Basin. From an initial commission for 50,000 tons, the successful stripping operation within a three-year span grew to 600,000 tons due to U. S shipments to Japan and Korea. Production by the end of the third contract was over one million tons All contracts met scheduled time and grade was higher than requirements As many as 68 "D8" "Cats" and "Cans" were at work on the Waterloo hillside. He advanced from superintendent to general manager and was later elected president. When Mountain Copper decided to move the control of phosphate operation to Montpelier, his titles from 1949 were president and general manager. Home offices were built at 720 Washington street. Mr. King had the greatest respect and appreciation of local people, always lauding their ingenuity, resourcefulness and dedication to work. His company was credited with several firsts, including "open cast" or "stripping" methods at Waterloo and later at Deere, Wyoming for- mining Western phosphate rock; first to design and build a Dry Type Separation System, a Hydrometallurgical plant and flotation of western phosphorites for which his company won....phosphate was a dedicated expression of a lifetime's dream. Since college graduation he was never for a single day off a payroll. His travels abroad were in the interest of mining and processing. His professional career of 38 years, except for interruptions due to the depression and World War II, were mostly in phosphate ventures, largely in Bear Lake Basin, including the economical underground mining in the Crawford Mountains. He also visualized the great potential of the deposits at Vernal, Utah, which his company succeeded in purchasing and initial strip mining and erected a benefication plant. Mr. King was a member of Western Star Lodge No. 2, Shasta Free and Accepted Masons of California, the Episcopalian Church, and a former member and past president of Montpelier Rotary Club. His interests were broad and love of the area and people deep and loyal. Mr. King and Mary Linn Saeltzer of Redding were married September 7, 1932 at Logan. Besides his widow he is survived by two sons, Duncan L. King Jr., assistant manager of mining department of fertilizer divison of Stauffer, now at Vernal, and Robert S. King, head of Cyrogenics Division of U. S. Welding Company of Denver; six grandchildren and one sister, Mrs. E. E. (Frances) Bennett of La Grande, Oregon. Another sister, Mrs. Lyon (Dorothy) Healey, preceded him in death. Services were at 11 a. m., Wednesday in the Montpelier Stake Center with burial in the Montpelier City Cemetery.