Robert Merrill King (1930–2007) was a plant taxonomist whose specialty was the Asteraceae family, tribe Eupatorieae. He holds degrees from Gorham State College, Gorham, Maine (B.S., 1953) and the University of Michigan (M.S., 1955). King has worked at the Smithsonian Institution’s Department of Botany and as an assistant professor of biology at Catonsville Community College, Catonsville, Maryland. His publications include more than 60 articles on the Compositae, as well as the book The Genera of the Eupatorieae (Asteraceae) (St. Louis, Missouri Botanical Garden, 1987; HI call no. DT100 314 K54G).