Dr. Reatha Clark King
Chemist
Reatha King was born to sharecroppers in Pavo in southwest Georgia in 1938. As a child, King and her family moved to Moultrie, Georgia, where she attended public school. She graduated from Moultrie High School for Negro Youth as class valedictorian. Due to her academic promise, King secured a scholarship to Clark College (now Clark Atlanta University) in Atlanta. At Clark, she earned a bachelor’s degree in science with concentrations in chemistry and mathematics in 1958.
After receiving a fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, King attended the University of Chicago where she obtained a master’s degree in science in 1960 and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1963. King went to work at the National Bureau of Standards, becoming the organization’s first Black female chemist. While at the bureau, King invented a coiled tube that allowed fuel traveling through it to cool instead of exploding. Her invention was crucial in the space race. She also authored a 1967 paper on oxygen difluoride, a key ingredient in rocket fuel that has since become a fundamental component. In 1968, King moved to New York City and worked as an assistant professor at the City University of New York. In 1970, she became associate dean for the School of Mathematics & Natural Science and associate dean for Academic Affairs in 1974.
Three years later, King received her master’s degree in business administration from Columbia University and became president of Metropolitan State University in Minnesota that same year. In 1988, General Mills hired King as vice president of the General Mills corporation and president and executive director of the General Mills Foundation. She worked at General Mills until her retirement in 2002. In 2011, she began working with Allina Health systems as a corporate director.
Resource: Atlanta History Center