Better Men Better World Search

I met Tim King 16 years ago when he was named head of my school. Ever since, I have been in awe of his limitless capacity to impact the lives of others.

My high school catered to working-class boys, and most of us were being raised by our mothers without any real positive male role models in our lives. King filled that void. He was leader, mentor, brother, friend, and father to us all. And he never once let us down.

King led an astonishing turnaround of our school: raised millions of dollars, improved the facility, revamped the curriculum, and changed our lives. While most students run from school when the bell rings, we all found ourselves hanging out in King's office at dismissal and beyond. I remember New Year's Eve of my senior year: Several of my classmates and I were at the school completing our college applications with King right there, insisting on perfection. I must have written and rewritten my essay a million times before he finally told me it was good enough to submit. He then drove us to the city's main post office so that we could get the applications postmarked by the midnight deadline. A few months later, I received my acceptance letter from Cornell University.

King's commitment to making the world a better place through education didn't start or end with me. While a student at Georgetown University Law School, King taught at an inner-city school in Washington, D.C. I am amazed at how many of these former students have told me that King not only changed their lives, but saved them. When one of King's 15-year old students became homeless upon the death of his mother due to a drug-related illness, King took him in, became his guardian, and raised him as his son.

The most recent, and impressive, example of King's passion for improving society can be found in Chicago at Urban Prep Academies. In 2006, King opened Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men, the country's first all-boys public charter high school. Urban Prep students are African-American, low-income, and come to the school woefully behind academically (Urban Prep is non-selective and admissions is done via lottery). Under King's leadership, Urban Prep's rigorous curriculum and unique school culture have resulted in amazing results, most notably 100% of Urban Prep graduates have been admitted to four-year colleges/universities. This is an impressive accomplishment, but when one considers that as few as 1 in 40 African-American boys will earn a college degree, you can see the incredible impact King is having on our world with Urban Prep.

King has devoted his entire professional career to improving the lives of others and helping us to reach our potential. There are thousands of boys from the "hood" whose lives, like mine, have been transformed because of Tim King's simple commitment to making a better world — by filling it with better men.