Imogene King, EdD, MSN, RN, FAAN, 84, died on December 24, two days after suffering a stroke. King was professor emeritus at the University of South Florida and served on the advisory board of the University of Tampa. Previously she held positions at Loyola University in Chicago and Ohio State University. In the 1960s, she was the assistant chief in the research grants branch of the Division of Nursing at the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. An Iowan by birth, King spent much of her career in Florida, working to advance nursing in the state through her activities with the Florida Nurses Association and the Florida Nurses Foundation. Still, King is best known as one of the first nursing theorists, for her "theory of goal attainment." King considered the nurse-patient relationship within a general systems theory and described nurses and patients interacting within larger social systems in a dynamic relationship in order to achieve goals. Her text, A Theory for Nursing: Systems, Concepts, Process, was translated into several languages. The American Academy of Nursing named her a living legend. When she was inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame in 2004, her biography noted that King modeled nurses' "responsibility to actively contribute to the advancement of the profession. As a result, she has personally influenced the life, community, and profession of nurses and nursing." King is survived by a nephew and two nieces. In her honor, the Florida Nurses Foundation instituted the Imogene M. King Research Grant.
Maureen Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, news director