As an owner of more than 40 cats over her lifetime, Kay Yarborough Nelson is passionate about feline health. She lives on a 30-acre ranch in coastal Northern California, along with five cats (as of last count).
With feline health top of Kay’s mind, the Kay Yarborough Nelson Distinguished Professorship in Feline Health at WSU was created by her late husband of 35 years, Raymond A. Nelson, a veteran of WWII who attended WSU under the GI Bill for his B.S. and M.S. degrees in physics.
The professorship is awarded to a faculty member who works to better the health of felines. In addition to honoring the recipient for their contributions, the professorship provides resources to enhance research programs at WSU that seek to improve the lives of domestic cats.
At the dawn of the personal computer era, Kay was the author of some 36 books. Among them were the Voodoo series published by Ventana Press (Voodoo DOS, Voodoo Windows, Voodoo WordPerfect), several titles for Peachpit Press (The Little Windows Book, Windows 95 is Driving Me Crazy, and others), and a few for Osborne-McGraw-Hill and Random House. She also had columns in several of the popular magazines of the day.
Ray invested the royalties, and the Kay Yarbrough Nelson Distinguished Professorship in Feline Research came into being at WSU.
Read about the professor who currently holds this position.
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Kay Yarborough Nelson Distinguished Professorship in Feline Health recipients:
- Nicolas Villarino, 2021-2026