Biography of reatha c. king

1938—

Chemist, educator

Reatha Clark King is a chemist whose long scientific career includes breakthroughs in fluoride research that advanced the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) space program.

She has devoted the second half of her career as an educator and administrator to expanding opportunities for education available to students from poor backgrounds.

Seized Educational Opportunities

Reatha Belle Clark King was born on April 11, 1938, in Pavo, Georgia, one of three children born to Willie and Ola Watts Campbell Clark.

Biography of reatha c. king obituary

Her parents, an illiterate farm worker and a domestic servant, divorced when she was young. King's mother then moved with her children to Moultree, Georgia, where she found work as a maid. King's early life centered around the institutions of church and school, although the family was so poor that she often had to leave school to pick cotton or tobacco for $3 per day.

"Those were bitter moments," King recalls in t