Reatha Clark King was born in rural Georgia. She spent her childhood years working in the cotton fields and on her
aunt's farm. She attended the University of Chicago and graduated with a Ph.D. in Chemistry. She was lonely sometimes
because there were hardly any women in the program. She did not let this keep her from doing what she wanted though.
She researched fluorine flame colorimetry at the National Bureau of Standards. She worked six years there and
then became a professor of Chemistry at York College. She advanced through the positions and left to obtain a master's
degree in business. She became the president of Metropolitan University Minnesota. Her plan for the college is for there
to be opportunities for 
women and minorities
in higher education. She says:
"I realized early in my life that education is our best enabling resource, that technical
skills are important, that my stamina for championing educational opportunity for all people is inexhaustible."
