With a lifelong interest in science and technology, Kay Yarborough Nelson authored approximately 40 books between 1986 and 1995.
PESCADERO, CA, July 01, 2022 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Kay Yarborough Nelson with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Ms. Nelson celebrates many years' experience in her professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes she has accrued in her field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Ms. Nelson is now retired, but her career began almost simultaneously with the beginning of the computer age. She was one of the first women to author what was then called "computer books"—books that focused on introducing people to a new skill set as well as an understanding of the principles of this new field. Although computers are everywhere now, at that time they were new to just about everybody. Ms. Nelson had a knack for explaining things concisely and wittily, and her books were immensely popular, appearing on The New York Times bestseller list many times. They were translated into at least 19 languages, including French, German, Italian, Japanese, Hebrew, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, and Polish.
Kay specialized in writing about operating systems and word processing. With well over one million books in print at one time, she attributes their popularity to her ability to make the same mistakes as beginning computer users and to explain how to fix them. Among her many noteworthy books, Ms. Nelson authored "Advanced Techniques in WordPerfect" in 1987, 2nd edition, 1990, "The Little System 7 Book" in 1991, 2nd edition, 1992, "The Little Windows Book" in 1991, "Slick Tricks for Word and WordPerfect" in 1994, and the Voodoo series—"Voodoo Windows 95," "Voodoo DOS," and "Voodoo WordPerfect" in 1995.
With a lifelong interest in science and technology, Ms. Nelson authored approximately 40 books between 1986 and 1995. Additionally, Ms. Nelson contributed a multitude of articles for various technology magazines, including Home Office Computing Magazine, Computer Life, and DOS World. She also served as a freelance editor for various other technology books and publications.
Ms. Nelson's career in journalism has spanned more than 55 years. After graduating with honors from The University of Chicago in 1965, she accepted a position at Science Research Associates (SRA), which was a Chicago-based publisher that specialized in educational materials, college textbooks, and computer-learning materials. She worked as an editor at SRA in Chicago and then transferred to the company's College Division in Palo Alto, California, where she edited college textbooks in the field of computer science and became Editorial Manager.
When SRA closed the Palo Alto office, she became a freelance editor and worked for several high-tech startups in Silicon Valley (remember VisiCalc?). While working freelance, she had taken over a project for an author who was unable to complete a manuscript. Ms. Nelson's seamless takeover gained the recognition of her publisher, and she began receiving book contracts from Random House, Bantam, Osborne/McGraw-Hill, Sybex, Peachpit Press, Ventana Press, and other major publishers.
A 1962 graduate of Decatur High School in Decatur, Alabama, Ms. Nelson received the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association junior fellowship, which provided employment at the U.S. Army Ordnance Missile Command (Redstone Arsenal, now the Marshall Space Flight Center). She then went on scholarship to attend The University of Chicago, earning a Bachelor of Arts in English with honors in 1965. Invaluable help was provided along the way: John H. Teague (Decatur High School), Karl J. Weintraub (The University of Chicago), Dr. Robert L. Berger (the School of Life), Dr. Linda Amezcua, DMV, and numerous others. In her spare time, she grows her own vegetables, sings in a choir, wrangles cats, and cuts 30 acres of grass. In 2005, she was recognized for her local volunteer efforts with a Certificate of Congressional Recognition for Service to the Community. As a way of giving back to future generations, she has endowed the Kay Yarborough Nelson Distinguished Professorship in Feline Health at Washington State University (https://tinyurl.com/4m9tvpne). She lives in coastal California with her cats.
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