Derek King will be remembered for his smile, his laughter and his fearless sense of adventure.

Those sentiments were echoed over and over at his memorial service June 16.

Friends, family and students gathered at Christ’s Church in Federal Way to celebrate the life of King, 18, who was killed June 9 in a rear-end collision on I-5.

King and his friend Nicholas Hodgins were both seniors, about to graduate from Decatur High School, when their short lives were cut short.

But it wasn’t the circumstances or his death that was the focus of Wednesday’s service — it was his life, which King lived to the fullest.

His dream was to be a culinary chef, and he was on his way, recently finishing his course work at the Puget Sound Skills Center Culinary program. Two of his teachers spoke of a boy who had quickly fallen in love with cooking and rose to become one of the top students.

“My student had become the teacher and it was so rewarding,” Director Tony Poplin said.

Poplin told of the time that King, who was always laughing and joking around in class, keeping everyone entertained, tried to teach him “The Jerk” dance.

“I will be a fool for you and these steps are for you,” Poplin said before attempting the jerky step hop movement on stage, drawing laughter from those in attendance.

“Derek became an institution in the program,” Executive Chef Kevin Blaylock said.

King made the school’s Mystery Basket competition team, competing at the Renton culinary school recently. The team spent weeks practicing, with King keeping everyone in good humor. The team won first place.

“I remember how proud their parents were, especially Derek’s,” Blaylock said.

Friends spoke of a young man who was always up for adventure, doing extreme sports like motocross and wakeboarding, or coming up with ideas like longboarding down Dash Point Road to Knutzen Family Theatre to see how fast they could go.

“He was an amazing person who lived life to the fullest,” friend Sam Green said. “I am going to miss him more than he knows.”

His cousin Saysha Ray spoke of times spent out on the water, having fun on the wave runner together, and the mischief they got into.

“You are not only my cousin, but also my brother,” Ray said. “I love you forever and you’ll always be in my heart.”

Finally it was King’s father, Randall King, who spoke of his son’s brief life, which was filled with sports, especially as he got older. He loved waterskis, wakeboarding and snowboarding, even convincing his dad to go with him to a terrain park, where he went off jump after jump and bump, his dad following behind on skis. King and his brother, Jared, loved to go cliff diving at Banks lake, scaring their parents.

“He also thought driving his car was an extreme sport,” Randall joked.

But food was his passion. When he won first place, Randall said his son’s eyes just lit up: “I’ve never seen his eyes – they were so wide, he just lit up.”

But most importantly, King loved his friends and his family, and they loved him.

“Now he is our guardian angel,” Randall said.

Nicholas Hodgins

A memorial service for Decatur student Nicholas Hodgins will be 1 p.m. Saturday, June 19, at Decatur High School’s auditorium, 2800 S.W. 320th St.

SLIDESHOW: