The Maine Downtown Center is honoring Bath resident William F. “Bill” King, Jr. by renaming the Downtown Visionary Award the William F. King, Jr. Downtown Champion Award. The retitling is in recognition of King’s decades of commitment to downtown revitalization at the local, state and national levels.

Jonathan Edgerton, Senior Advisor with MDC’s Downtown Advisory Council, made the announcement to 400 attendees at the recent Maine Development Foundation Annual Meeting in Bangor.

“Bill King is a passionate believer in the economic, historic and cultural value downtowns bring to communities, and he has unselfishly given his time and energy to reinvigorating downtowns across the state,” said Edgerton. “Bill was instrumental in bringing the National Main Street Center-coordinating program – known as the Maine Downtown Center – to Maine almost 20 years ago. Before that, he co-founded the Bath Business Association to prepare downtown shops for competition from large chain stores, an effort that become nationally acclaimed. The Maine Downtown Center is delighted to unveil the dedication of the William F. King, Jr. Downtown Champion Award to honor Bill and his unwavering commitment to Maine’s downtowns.”

King, a self-described “champion of civic mischief,” is a longtime volunteer with Main Street Bath and a Senior Advisor with the MDC Advisory Council.

No stranger to small business, King ran Harrington King & Co., his family’s Boston-based, third-generation ship chandlery business turned marine and snowmobile distributor and, most recently, owned and operated RVI, a power sports business located in downtown Bath.

King has been a past recipient of several awards for his commitment to downtown revitalization, including MDC’s 2005 “Downtown Visionary Award,” Maine Preservation’s “Preservation Champion” award, the City of Bath’s “Person of the Year,” and the National Maine Street Association’s “Main Street Hero” award.