The Creative Academic Technology Solutions team, known as CATS, bid farewell to a valued and important member last week.

Bob King has been with the CATS group for over 40 years and retired last Thursday, Oct. 29.

The CATS team is the multimedia production team on campus at Weber State University. The team does professional photography for faculty and staff, event photography for online and marketing, as well as audio and visual production for professors to record lectures that can then be watched throughout the years.

The CATS team also created the first WSU online homepage back in 1996.

King was known as the media architect. He helped faculty and staff with all of their multimedia needs.

King also designed the media system that is used in classrooms and helped productions such as TEDx WSU and Commencement come together.

Joe Salamond, who is the media developer for the CATS team, described King as an absolute pleasure to work around.

“He [King] is brilliant in his field and can find the right solution for practically any challenge,” Salamond said. “Beyond that, Bob is just a genuinely nice guy.”

Throughout the years King has worked with many different departments, faculty and staff here at WSU.

Even if it’s not his job, King is willing to go out of his way to help whenever and wherever he can. He genuinely enjoys helping people.

One of his first assignments at WSU was a special event where Ronald Reagan came to speak at WSU. King’s job was to get signal from the Browning Center to the Union Building in order for the overflow crowd to have a chance to see and hear him speak.

King has also worked filming archeological digs and has filmed the efforts of Utah and Weber State University in preparing the NUSAT satellite to launch.

Known by his friends as a practical jokester, Alan Ferrin—manager of the CATS team—said, “You had to keep your eye out with Bob around or you may just end up the brunt of a practical joke.”

In 1976, there was flooding in the library. A dam was built in the corner in order to let the water run down into it. King decided to buy some goldfish and put them into the dam.

Another time, King decided to make it appear that his boss’s office was overflowing with shredded paper. King stuck pieces of paper in the window frames and underneath the door to make it look like the entire room was stuffed with people, in reality it was only the windows.

In his spare time, King and his wife Jenny raise sheep. They also give sheep shearing demonstrations at pioneer festivals around the state. He and his wife have two children and one grandchild.

During his retirement, King plans to spend time with his family and go to through the backcountry of New Zealand and Australia. He is retiring while he has his health and can “enjoy life and travel.”

“Weber is an incredible place, the people here are so great,” King said. “The saddest thing of all is to leave.”