Inventory to the Percy Lavon Julian Family Papers

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Percy Lavon Julian Family Papers
Series III: Folder 16
Julian Memorial Lecture: Reatha Clark King
April 2, 1992

     On April 11, 1938, Reatha Clark was born in Pavo, Georgia. One could never predict that this black girl baby, born on the 39th birthday of the famous black chemist, Percy L. Julian, would follow in his footsteps in so many ways. She, too, would become a chemist of note, would find her place in the academic world, would be recognized for her contribution to the furthering of brotherhood among Christians and Jews, would be given the Twin Cities award as Percy was named the Chicago Man of the Year in 1950, and finally, fifty-four years later, would give the Sixteenth Memorial Lecture in honor of the man who helped open the doors of the world to her and her generation of black students.

    Reatha Clark King is a 1958 graduate of Clark College, with a major in chemistry. Here she affiliated with Delta Sigma Theta sorority, which Dr. Anna Julian has served as a past national president. She continued her chemical studies at the University of Chicago and received the Ph. D. in Physical-Inorganic Chemistry in 1963. It was during these years at Chicago that she married Dr. N. Judge King, Jr. They have two sons: N. Judge King, III, a senior medical student at the University of Minnesota, and Scott King a senior at Morehouse College in Atlanta.

    Dr. King was to begin a research career in the National Bureau of Standards in 1963 as a research chemist. Here she was recognized with a Meritorious Publication Award before leaving the Bureau in 1968 to become a professor of chemistry at York College of the City University of New York. During these years she conducted research in the thermochemical properties of alloys, using tin solution calorimetry, heats of formation of refractory compounds, and fluorine flame calorimetry at room temperature. At York College her administrative  abilities soon took her from the classroom as she became Associate Dean for Natural Sciences and Mathematics and later Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. During these years she also completed the Master of Business Administration at Columbia University in 1977.

    Since 1977 she has resided in the Twin Cities of Minnesota: first as President of Metropolitan State University, a position which she held for eleven years, and since November of 1988, as President and Executive Director of the General Mills Foundation in Minneapolis.

    Like Percy Julian, Reatha King, is a person of many talents. In the fifteen years she has been in the Twin Cities she has become highly recognized in her community, receiving the Twin Citian of the Year award in 1988. In addition to her duties as President of Metropolitan State University and the General Mills Foundation, she has lectured widely on the subject of community service and social issues. Her services on the boards of the Norwest Corporation, Carleton College, the University of Chicago, the United Way of St. Paul  and Minneapolis, the Minnesota Council of Foundations, and the Minnesota legislature's Regent Candidate Advisory Council attest to her administrative breadth.

    Among her many awards are the recognition of her talents by seven academic institutions with the honorary doctorate degree. In addition, she has been the recipient of the Paul Harris Fellow Award by the St. Paul Rotary Club, the 1985 Spurgen Award from the Indianhead Council of the Boy Scouts of America, the 1986 Drum Major for Justice Award from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the 1988 Professional Achievement Award from the University of Chicago Alumni Association. Lastly, she, like Percy L. Julian, has been recognized as an Exceptional Black Scientist by the CIBA-GEIGY Corporation.