Ronald B. King, Landscaper, Collector

Ronald B. King, a self-employed landscaper and lifelong resident of East Hampton, died on June 4 at Southampton Hospital. He was 67 and had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in May.

For 40 years Mr. King was a member of Dig It, a national metal detecting club, and “was well known in the community for reuniting people with their lost items,” his wife, the former Lillian Cook Rade, said. He had accumulated quite a large collection of arrowheads, she said, but in 1990, when the couple were out in a potato field, she was the one who made a valuable discovery, a rare 340-year-old New England sixpence. According to a New York Times article on Aug. 15, 1999, the coin fetched $35,200 at auction, enough for a down payment on the couple’s house. It was resold in the last few years for more than $400,000.

Mr. King was a surfcaster and clammer who also enjoyed building birdhouses and repairing old bicycles, some of which he found at yard sales, which he went to habitually, “looking for antiques and treasures,” his wife said. Over the years, he had found a Rolex watch, many rings, and hundreds of very old silver coins and buttons, not only from Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders encampment in Montauk but also from the Civil War.

He was born at Southampton Hospital on Feb. 20, 1950, one of four children of the former Dolores Rangel and Arnold B. King. He graduated from East Hampton High School in 1969 and went to work as a landscaper for others, going out on his own 20 years ago. In last week’s issue, a note about his funeral service said in error that Mr. King had been a haulseiner.

Mr. King’s parents and a sister, Jocelyn King Angel of El Cajon, Calif., died before him. He and his wife were married in 1983. Surviving are their son, Christopher King of Hampton Bays, a stepson, Richard Rade of Montauk, and a stepdaughter, Susan Rade Gervais of Vermont. Mr. King’s brothers, Kevin King and Ricky King of East Hampton, and three step-grandchildren also survive.

The family received visitors at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton last Thursday evening, followed on Friday by a graveside service at Cedar Lawn Cemetery in East Hampton, with the Rev. Steven Howarth of the Amagansett Presbyterian Church officiating.