Personality surveys have an act for being either way on or way off from the actual personality of a person. For Mr. Christopher King, a chemistry teacher at North Penn High School, a personality survey was not only accurate to his personality, but it also helped him decide to become a teacher.

When King first graduated from Penn State, he went into the industry field, studying in Princeton, NJ for a little over a year. Then, he later went into the manufacturing business, making flexible bags, such as potato chip bags.

He didn’t quite enjoy the job as much as he thought. King then took a personality survey that resulted in seven out of the ten career matches for him being related to some sort of teaching.

“Growing up, I swore that I would never become a teacher,” commented King “but, I think that there are some careers that just match your personality and teaching just so happens to be mine. I really do like teaching. I really love what I do.”

King’s passion for teaching and chemistry shows in his teaching style every day. He understands that he needs to make the class enjoyable because he knows that some students don’t think it is fun talking about the electromagnetic spectrum or the periodic table.

King is never afraid to throw a joke or two into his teaching, “I’m kind of half stand-up comic and half science geek, so I think teaching is a nice thing because I can convey my love for the science, but I also get to stand up, crack jokes, and just be myself.”

Even though he has a love for teaching, it only is a small part of his life. His family plays a major role in his life because they are always keeping him busy. Between his oldest daughter, Beth, participating in various bands and orchestras to his younger daughter, Katie, playing on a number of sports teams to his son, John, focusing on his band, King is never bored.

He always seems to be running around to concerts and sporting events, but he never seems to mind because he said “I enjoy going to the soccer games, the concert, and the basketball games. You never root as hard for a team as when your kid is on the team or you’re never as excited to hear a concert as when it’s your kid playing in the concert. I just enjoy watching them do stuff.”

He’s always supportive of his family and they are always supportive in whatever he does, including his self-started, t-shirt business.

It all began in the mid-90s when the chemistry department began tye dying with students at North Penn. King described how over the years he became the “go-to” guy for how to go about doing everything. Then, after one comment from a student, “you should do this as a business because this is really fun,” King started Try Dye.

“I called my wife one day and said ‘hey, I think I can make a business out of this’,” said King, “and then, we just started going to more and more fairs.”

King’s Tye Dye has gone all over the area to various events, such as Delaware Valley College A-Day and North Wales Community Fair. Clubs and sports’ teams approach him and ask if he would please make their shirts.

King is always looking to improve the business whether it is based off of his own ideas or suggestions from customers, “It turned into people wanting something silk screened on the shirt,” commented King “people didn’t want to tye dye, but rather they just wanted shirts. So, now I can do [silk screening] and all that sort of stuff.”

With everything going on in his life, it’s a wonder how he is able to keep up with it all. But, King does not mind the craziness because he loves how much he can help out other people.

King said that he believes that everyone should get up every day and make the day better for someone else, even if it is something little because “it spreads quite a bit. You need to do something to not only make the world a little bit better, but to make yourself better as well.”