[2][3] Her father, Willie B. Clark, was a sharecropper, and her mother, Ola Mae Watts Campbell, had only a third-grade education.

[7] Reatha Clark King later earned a master's in business administration in finance management from Columbia University while on sabbatical.

Hired by George T. Armstrong, King was the first African American female chemist to work at the agency.

[10] Much of her work there involved measuring the accurate heats of formation of gaseous fluorine compounds,[9] and she received a Meritorious Publication Award for her paper on fluoride flame calorimetry.

[4] She helped to substantially expand the university,[9] and promoted involvement of minorities and women in higher education.

Under her leadership the General Mills Foundation, originally established in 1954, has been active both locally and nationally in philanthropic and community service.

In 1994, she was appointed by President Bill Clinton to be a member of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, and served until her resignation in 1997.