In our community, Reatha is well known by her various careers, either as a scientist, educator, philanthropist and/or longtime member of corporate and nonprofit boards of directors.
Of particular interest to us this evening is that Reatha began her first professional career on January 2, 1963 as a rocket scientist at the renowned National Bureau of Standards (NBS) in Washington, DC, exactly 54 years from this week. Reatha describes her start at NBS as the perfect foundation for her success in her later leadership positions in higher education, philanthropy and corporate governance.
Immediately after completing her studies for the Masters and Ph.D. degree in thermochemistry in December 1962 at the University of Chicago, Reatha began employment as a research chemist, at age 25, in the Heat Division at the Bureau of Standards, in January, 1963 while her husband, Judge, was beginning his studies at Howard University for his doctorate degree in organic chemistry.
Along with some other smaller research projects at the Bureau of Standards, Reatha’s main assignment was to determine the Heat of Formation of Oxygen Difluoride, a special project that Reatha’s calororimetry group was assigned in a NASA Contract. Because of the country’s sense of urgency to succeed in beating Russia in the Space Program, the NASA Program has special backing of then President John F Kennedy and the U.S. Congress. NASA had issued many contracts to scientists throughout the country and there was a special sense of urgency, excitement, and determination among the young and experienced rocket scientists and engineers working on materials and projects of interest to NASA. Even though the projects were challenging, you knew that you were doing of very special interest to the country. Over the years, Reatha’s received an OUTSTANDING PUBLICATION AWARD for her ground-breaking work on this and other projects at the Bureau of Standards.
Reatha is a graduate of Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry and mathematics. She earned the master’s and doctorate degrees in chemistry from the University of Chicago and the MBA degree from Columbia University. Over the years, Reatha has been recognized with many awards.
From 1988 to May 31, 2002, she served as president and executive director of the General Mills Foundation and vice president of General Mills, Inc., and from June, 2002 to May 31, 2003, she served as chairperson of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees. She joined General Mills after serving 11 years as president of Metropolitan State University in the Twin Cities. Prior to her presidency at Metropolitan State University, Dr. King was employed as a professor of chemistry and associate dean at York College of the City University of New York. King describes her start as a research chemist as the perfect foundation for her success in her later leadership positions in higher education, philanthropy and corporate governance.
Reatha resides in Minneapolis, MN. She and her late husband have two sons, a daughter-in-law and three grandchildren.
