Hamp King

W. Hampton King was born on October 1, 1909, in Heidelberg, Mississippi. He attended local public schools and Hinds Junior College before earning a bachelor's degree at the University of Mississippi and a graduate degree from the Nashville YMCA Night Law School. He became a certified public accountant in 1955.^[1] He married Douglas Banks in July 1938^[2] and had two daughters with her.^[1] After living in Tennessee and North Carolina, he returned to Mississippi in 1947, moving to Cleveland. In 1956, he moved to Jackson.^[3]

King worked variously as a schoolteacher, social worker, concrete inspector, and cannery manager^[1][4] before being hired by the Mississippi State Department of Audit in 1953 as a field auditor. In 1956, he was made an assistant director before being promoted to director six years later.^[1] King ran for the office of State Auditor in 1963, defeating Dewey Mark Norton in the Democratic primary.^[5] He was sworn-in in January 1964,^[1] becoming the first certified public accountant to hold the office.^[6] He was reelected to the office four times,^[7] serving until 1984.^[4] He reportedly favored Mason Shelby as his successor, but Shelby was defeated in the 1983 Democratic primary by Ray Mabus.^[8] At the time he left the auditorship, the office was delinquent for 581 fiscal years worth of audits.^[9]

King died from heart failure on May 8, 1991.^[4] The Mississippi Society of Certified Accountants created the Hamp King Award—named in honor of the auditor—to recognize talented accounting students.^[10]