About the Author

Katherine (Kay) Chaudhri grew up in northern Ohio and southern Illinois before entering Culver-Stockton College in Canton,Missouri. Marriage to a classmate, Kenneth Robb, and the birth of four children delayed her graduation, but she obtained her BA in science education from Culver-Stockton in 1959.  In 1964, she received her MA  in history from Central Missouri State College, and the next year began teaching in Leeton, and later Knob Noster, Missouri.

The Knob Noster schools served Whiteman Air force Base and student accounts of their overseas experiences inspired her to travel with a son and daughter to Europe in 1974.  Teaching Contemporary Issues at a time when containment of Communism dominated American foreign policy prompted the desire to see the Soviet Union. In 1975 she and another son drove from Luxembourg to Moscow, south to Kiev, and back to Vienna, Austria, stopping at designated camp sites each night.

Intrigued by what she was learning about the world, Kay applied to teach in the Department of Defense overseas schools, and was offered a position in Bahrain. By this time, two of her sons were married and her youngest son and daughter were in college, so she felt free to begin what she expected to be a brief adventure exploring another culture.  Instead, she stayed to teach at Bahrain School for thirteen years. During the years in the Middle East, she traveled multiple times to Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan and India.

In 1989, she was offered the position administering a program to supplement science courses in the overseas system with a Science, Technology, and Society focus.  Writing materials, coordinating with other teachers in the program, offering workshops, and distributing materials required a move to Bad Kreuznach, Germany. In 1994, she returned to Missouri, settling in Springfield.