Reed College Magazine March 2013

‰ march 2013

pathogenius KITTENS RAVAGE CANYON | Reed Raises $203 Million | CHEERS TO RICHARD CRANDALL ’69

REUNIONS 2013

June 12–16

ollow Athena’s yarn back to Reed and gain

inspiration and strength from the community

of fellow alumni. The goddess of wisdom would surely approve of the slate of activities that includes intellect, arts, and raucous fun!

Check out the schedule of events and register online at reedfayre.reed.edu.

ART W ORK BY LUC Y BE L LWO OD ’1 2

reedfayre.reed.edu

alumni@reed.edu

503/777-7589

blogs.reed.edu/the_riffin_griffin/ Reed College Reedfayre 2013

REED

Departments 2 From the Editor

march 2013

3 Letters

Features 12

4 Eliot Circular

The Science Bug

Feral cats ravage canyon Nicholson appointed dean of the faculty Shrinking Reed’s carbon footprint Love and red tape Drawing battle lines Working Weekend ’13

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Reed students bring “mad science” to Portland schools.

By Randall S. Barton

10 Empire of the Griffin 14

You Did It!

Connecting Reedies Across the Globe

From your Alumni Board President Postcard from Cleveland Postcard from Washington, D.C.

Centennial Campaign raises $203 million.

By Randall S. Barton and Matt Kelly

36 Reediana

Books By Reedies

40 Class Notes 20

51 In Memoriam

Behind the Mask

John D. Gray Professor Richard E. Crandall ’69

Artist-activist Lynn Bowers ’65 sculpts a life in clay.

By Laurie Lindquist

60 Apocrypha

Tradition, Myth, Legend

Simpson for Queen!

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pathogenius 28

Drinking and Thinking

Reed psychology professor Kris Anderson leads major alcohol study.

By Romel Hernandez 24

Element of Surprise Reed biologists investigate a gut-wrenching mystery.

By Alex Blum ’14

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Fighting Malaria on the Cheap Silas Cook ’99 finds new way to synthesize antimalarial drug.

By Miles Bryan ’13

26

From Toads to Tumors

Epidemiologist Preetha Rajaraman ’94 examines why some people are more susceptible to brain cancer than others.

By Romel Hernandez 32

Signal Master

Neuroscientist Larry Sherman ’86 wants to regenerate your brain.

By Geoff Koch march 2013 Reed magazine

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‰ march 2013

www.reed.edu/reed_magazine 3203 SE Woodstock Boulevard, Portland, Oregon 97202 503/777-7591 Volume 92, No. 1 Magazine editor Chris Lydgate ’90 503/777-7596 chris.lydgate@reed.edu

Alumni mass on the steps of Vollum for Working Weekend ’13.

graphic designer Tom Humphrey 503/459-4632 tom.humphrey@reed.edu

Letter from the editor

Help a Student, See the Future Some 99 alumni descended on campus last month. Naturally it felt good to catch sight of familiar faces in the Quad and gossip about absent classmates in the Paradox. But this was not a social event—we came with our sleeves rolled up.

Working Weekend (see page 7) was a vivid demonstration of the power of alumni to help students get a toehold in the jobplace.

Over the course of 48 hours, we talked with students about our lucky breaks, our first real jobs, our worst interview experiences.

We opened our hearts and our rolodexes.

We steered them towards internships and jobs. We sweated details—I bumped into NPR correspondent Robert Smith ’89 dashing through Eliot Hall scrounging up snacks for the students at his Radio Bootcamp.

Meanwhile, a half-dozen alumni entrepreneurs—representing decades of marketplace experience—sat for hours in Vollum patiently coaching students through an elevator pitch.

Over the years, I have witnessed innumerable examples of alumni giving students a leg up on a job or a career. Which raises a fascinating question: What is it that drives us to fly thousands of miles and spend a perfectly good weekend to help perfect strangers whose only bond with us is Reed?

Some of it, I suppose, could be chalked up to mid-career narcissism. We like to feel wise. We are flattered that students think

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class notes editor Laurie Lindquist 503/777-7591 reed.magazine@reed.edu

we have learned something worth knowing.

But I don’t think that accounts for the passion, the intensity, and the dedication that the alumni volunteers lavished on students this weekend. Narcissism is a fancy haircut, not a weekend in a lecture hall.

The truth is that we have something in common with Reed students—it’s difficult to put a finger on, but there’s a genuine connection that goes beyond living in Doyle or majoring in linguistics. We see students as versions of ourselves, younger (possibly thinner) versions, who share our dreams but who don’t carry our baggage. Who inhabit that wonderful, terrifying stage of life when a Joni Mitchell tune can spark a romance and a conversation in the Paradox can lead to a career in neuroscience.

By offering Reedies our hard-won insights, we are in a sense redeeming our own past. Our mistakes are no longer just screw-ups—they are lessons. They help to make us who we are. By sharing these lessons, we gain a deeper understanding of the past and a tantalizing glimpse of the future.

Not a bad way to spend the weekend.

alumni news editor Robin Tovey ’97 Valiant Interns Miles Bryan ’13, Kim Durkin ’13, Daniel Ku ’13, Sandesh Adhikary ’15 ADVISORY BOARD Diane Morgan ’77, Matt Giraud ’85, Naomi McCoy ’94, Caitlin Baggott ’99 Reed College Relations vice president, college relations Hugh Porter director, public affairs Jennifer Bates director, alumni & parent relations Mike Teskey director, development Jan Kurtz Reed College is a private, independent, non-sectarian four-year college of liberal arts and sciences. Reed provides news of interest to alumni, parents, and friends. Views expressed in the magazine belong to their authors and do not necessarily represent officers, trustees, faculty, alumni, students, administrators, or anyone else at Reed, all of whom are eminently capable of articulating their own beliefs.

Reed (ISSN 0895-8564) is published quarterly, in March, June, September, and December, by the Office of Public Affairs at Reed College, 3203 SE Woodstock Boulevard, Portland, Oregon 97202.

Periodicals postage paid at Portland, Oregon.

Postmaster: Send address changes to Reed College, 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd., Portland OR 97202-8138.

—Chris Lydgate ’90

Letters to Reed photo by Dan Kvitka

Write to us! We love getting mail from readers. Letters should be about Reed (and its alumni) or Reed (and its contents) and run no more than 300 words; subsequent replies may only run half the length of their predecessors. Our decision to print a letter does not imply any endorsement. Letters are subject to editing. (Beware the editor’s hatchet.) For contact information, look to your left. Read more letters and commentary at www.reed.edu/reed_magazine.

Shilo, Reed, and Reed.

I thought that letters appearing in our alumni quarterly should be about Reed or they should be about articles in the magazine. Bethany Weidner’s letter in our December is issue is neither. What she writes is an uninformed diatribe against Israel’s settlement policy. This is not the place to respond. Those seeking a more reasoned approach are referred to the online readers’ comments. (See www.reed.edu /reed_magazine/december2012/articles /letters/shilo.html) Bethany’s letter was provoked by an innocent report of a gathering of Reed alumni in Israel. The article includes a fleeting mention that one participant, Ncoom Gilbar ’79, is a “tour guide at Shilo where Jews have lived for 300 years after leaving Egypt.” By what twisted logic could this sentence be construed as a plea for Israel’s settlement policy? The report of our meeting made no mention of whether Shilo is inside or outside the borders of Israel, nor does it mention if there is anyone living there at all. For all your readers could glean from this report, Shilo might be a deserted archeological site. It is difficult to see why this merited a heated political tirade. It is even more difficult to see why you chose to print it.

Bethany tells us that your report “falsifies the identity of Shilo.” Perhaps it is her letter which falsifies the purpose of our alumni quarterly.

—Laurin Lewis ’62 Jerusalem Editor’s Note. The

question of which letters to print, and whether to edit them, vexes the soul of every editor. My general policy has been to err on the side of publication—with a light touch on the editing—so long as the letter is either about Reed (and its alumni) or Reed (and its contents). I tend

Lloyd Reynolds’ handmade quill and reed pens, from the Cooley Gallery’s 2011 exhibition Lloyd Reynolds: A Life of Forms in Art.

to give priority to letters critical of my own editorial decisions because I believe printing such criticism is the hallmark of a worthy publication.

It was under this heading that I chose to run the letter from Bethany, which pointed out (correctly, in my view) that casual readers of Don’s original article might have gained a misleading impression about Shilo, even though the piece made no reference to its location. However, the letter went on to make some additional points, which created, shall we say, some perforations in Pandora’s enclosure, not to mention mine.

The letters section of a quarterly alumni magazine is not a particularly good forum for debating issues such as Israel and Palestine. However, to honor the Reed tradition of robust exchange of views, I propose the following policy: when an argument breaks out whose relevance to Reed seems doubtful, no letter can run more than half the length of its predecessor. I have applied this rule to Laurin’s letter and will apply it to any others on this subject. The online comments section, however, remains free from this restriction.

Remembering Lloyd Reynolds In light of the article “Rediscovering Lloyd Reynolds” (December 2012), I thought the following vignette appropriate. Shortly after finishing my law degree in 1973, I received a phone call from a newly graduated JD who said her office wanted to present a retiring judge a real quill

pen, but they didn’t have a clue how to find one.

Neither did I. However, after reflecting, I called Frances Van Hevelingen, a well-known Portland artist whose husband was Donald Abbott ’25.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Franny replied, “Call Lloyd Reynolds.” Mr. Reynolds answered on the first ring, and after hearing my need, he simply said, “I’ll make you one. It will be at the admission office in an envelope under your name.” After thanking him, I saw an opportunity that shouldn’t go untried. I called the newly minted lawyer back and told her that I had found a real quill pen for the presentation, but it would cost the group of lawyers a $50 check made out to the Reed alumni association. The group quickly agreed and I thought the matter settled. However, if you were Lloyd Reynolds, and made someone a real quill pen, what would you do? I received a call from the same lawyer several days later. Mr. Reynolds had made the pen all right, but then he decided to test it out.

In the envelope was not only the pen, but also a carefully crafted alphabet done by none other than the man himself! The lawyer’s group was so impressed, I was informed, that instead of sending over $50, they decided that the work merited additional remuneration and sent $100 instead. Little did I realize that my fundraising days had just begun.

—Bernard Merrill MALS ’06 Columbia City, Oregon March 2013 Reed magazine

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Eliot Circular news from campus

eren veziroglu ’16

Wildlife of a different stripe: a feral Canyon kitten patrols Cerf amphitheatre.

Feral Kittens Ravage Canyon The untamed beauty of the canyon attracts all manner of wild creatures, from steelhead trout to blue heron to a raft of otters. In the last couple of years, however, nature lovers have reported a flurry of encounters of a fuzzier kind.

The story begins in the spring of 2011, when a deceptively innocentlooking kitten was spotted in the vicinity of the Reed Theatre. Eluding all attempts at capture, the bewhiskered fugitive (later named Ms. Tuxedo Patches) survived to give birth to several litters. Before long, a veritable colony of feral kittens was skulking around Cerf amphitheatre, darting hither and yon, chasing their tails, and—after the humans had been lulled into complacence—raiding the dumpsters behind

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commons.

Brittney Corrigan-McElroy ’94, who works in conference & events planning at Reed, first took note of Ms. Tuxedo Patches during a summer picnic in the Quad for Chamber Music Northwest, which the matriarch celebrated with a lusty counterpoint. As the kittens multiplied, Brittney set out to capture them with the help of the Feral Cat Coalition. Employing Trader Joe’s ocean fish flavor cat food for bait, she was able to trap most of the velvety vagabonds. Some were adopted (Brittney, a student, and a CSO each took one); others, deemed too old to be properly socialized to humans, were neutered, vaccinated, treated for fleas, and released back into the canyon.

(Ms. Tuxedo Patches herself was finally apprehended in January, spayed, and returned to her kindle.)

Wildlife advocates have expressed concern about the potential damage that a colony of cats might wreak

The furtive felines congregate in Cerf amphitheatre, darting hither and yon. up on the canyon’s ecological balance, especially if they prey on native birds. However, Reed canyon czar Zac Perry doesn’t lose sleep over the furtive felines. “The last time I saw them in a group, two of them were fighting over a soggy french fry,” he says.

—Anna Mann

leah nash

Class of ’12: Where Are They Now? Success is not a destination but a journey. To find out more about the trajectories of our freshly minted graduates, Reed’s career services queried the class of ’12 in the form of a survey.

We heard from 200 of the 273 seniors, a response rate of 73%. Among those who responded, 55% have found work, 12% are looking for work, and 13% have been accepted to grad school.

Another 6% are volunteering in Peace Corps, Teach for America, City Year, and AmeriCorps.

Some of the more interesting places they’ve been: researching bacterial pathogens and studying the HIV virus, cancer, and salmonella—all at Oregon Health & Science University; in the dance company of Imago Theatre; studying Yiddish; volunteering at an elephant reintroduction program in Thailand; making saddles at a llama farm; doing research at Dolphins Plus; doing financial analysis at Intel; coordinating social services at a memory care facility; and interning at Comedy Central, the Bread and Puppet Theater in Vermont, and for Oregon senator Jeff Merkley.

History Lives On The Reed Oral History Project, which culminated in the book Comrades of the Quest, reporting the first 100 years of the college, did not provide for sustained interviews going forward into the second century. That gap has been filled by the creation of the Dorothy Johansen Society for the History of Reed College. The DJS, whose membership will comprise people willing to work on and/ or financially support the documenting, maintaining, and disseminating of the ongoing story of Reed, will hold its inaugural meeting this coming Reedfayre 2013, June 12–16. Founder Jim Kahan ’64 has provided funding to cover the DJS operating costs for the next few years as it gets started. Gay Walker ’69, special collections librarian for the Hauser Library, will provide administrative oversight for the interviewing and archiving effort, while the development office will work with DJS committee members to generate continuing support, with the hope of creating an endowment for these operations.

Reed Names New Dean of the Faculty We s alute Pro fess or N i gel Nicholson [classics 1995–], who has been named dean of the faculty and will begin his post as Reed’s chief academic officer on July 1.

“Nigel is an outstanding teacher, scholar, and educator,” said President John R. Kroger. “The Reed community looks forward to his leadership.”

Nicholson will replace Professor Patrick McDougal [chemistry 1990–], who has served as acting dean since Professor Ellen Stauder [English 1983–] stepped down in 2011 for health concerns.

“I am honored to serve as dean of Reed’s outstanding faculty and excited about the possibilities of the next few years,” said Nicholson.

Nicholson is Walter Mintz P r o fe s s o r o f C l a s s i c s a n d Humanities and has had extensive leadership experience at Reed and in professional organizations. He is the author of Aristocracy and Athletics in Archaic and Classical Greece, as well as a contributor to many academic

journals. He is well respected by his peers at Reed and within his discipline, having served on the Education Committee for the American Philological Association, the national association for classicists, and as president and treasurer of the Classical Association of the Pacific Northwest.

Nicholson was named Oregon Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in 2004.

In addition to his scholarship, Nicholson has been actively involved in several educational outreach programs in the community, including the Reed Latin Forum for Oregon and Washington high school students and the continuing education program for adults managed in partnership with the Oregon Council for the Humanities, Humanity in Perspective.

He earned his BA from Oxford University, with congratulatory first-class honors, and his MA and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. —Kevin Myers

For more information, email Gay at walkerg@reed.edu or Jim at jimkahan@alumni.reed.edu

march 2013 Reed magazine

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Eliot Circular Love and Red Tape

Yule Love It! photos by leah nash

heather chan ’13

From left: the hanging woman (Stella Ziegler ’15); the farmer (Perry Nelson ’16); Dermendzhieva (Corinne Bachaud ’14); Evgenia (Rosie Dempsey ’15); and the 56-year-old woman (Liz Groombridge ’16). [Not pictured: the linguistics professor (Spenser Silbey ’15); Zhoro (Andrew Watson ’14); and the bureaucrat (Colin Trevor ’15).]

Romance and bureacuracy were recurring themes in The Suede Jacket, a thesis production put on last semester by Elizabeth Dinkova ’13. Written by Bulgarian playwright Stanislav Stratiev in 1977, the play revolves around a hapless linguistics professor who buys a bundlesome suede jacket. His tortuous attempts to tailor his new acquisition plunge him into the depths of Soviet-era bureaucracy. In the photo, cast members enact a shared dream of flying, escaping the monotonous life of women in a totalitarian socialist state.

Alumni, friends, staff, and faculty enjoyed a festive evening at the Alumni Holiday Party, on Saturday, December 8. See the swingin’ photos on the “ReediEnews” page in Facebook.

Professor Leibman Wins National Jewish Book Award

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economic and religious worlds.

Reed students helped with archival work and photographing material culture in Newport, Rhode Island; Amsterdam; and the Caribbean.

“I am honored by the award but also deeply aware of how much writing the book was a collaborative process. In addition to students who worked in the field, colleagues in my writing group patiently read and reread chapter drafts, and college librarians, technology staff, and students helped create the database of images that accompanied the book and made much of my analysis possible. The life of the mind need not be a solitary venture,” said Leibman.

Laura Leibman

Professor Laura Leibman [English 1995–] won a National Jewish Book Award for Messianism, Secrecy and Mysticism: A New Interpretation of Early American Jewish Life (Vallentine Mitchell, 2012).

Leibman’s portrait offers a complex understanding of Jewish life in the 17th and 18th centuries. Her book expands the history of early American religion and restores the importance of mysticism to American Jewish history.

She writes about the culture, beliefs, spaces, and objects embraced by the Jewish people of the Atlantic world and weaves together conversos’ ideas about redemption, Kabbalah, and messianism while resuming their lives as Jews as they build

During the pogroms of the 1880s, many Russian Jews passed through Amsterdam and established shuln such as this one. Explore more images from the Jewish Atlantic World Database at cdm.reed.edu/cdm4 /jewishatlanticworld.

Henri Lovie, Charge of Fremont’s Bodyguard at Springfield, Missouri, October 25, 1861

Drawing Battle Lines The Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery is proud to present over 140 original Civil War era drawings from the Becker Collection at Boston College. The Becker Collection contains over 600 hitherto unexhibited and undocumented drawings by American artist Joseph Becker (1841–1910) and his colleagues, 19th-century artists who worked as artist-reporters for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper during the Civil War. Artist-reporters were charged with observing, drawing, and sending back for publication images of the battles, troop movements, and daily activities of the era. Completed in the field, their drawings were couriered to Leslie’s offices, where they were transformed into wood engravings, then cast as metal plates and printed. At times, it took as little as three days for drawings to make their way from the battlefield into Leslie’s pages. The exhibition runs through April 20.

See www.reed.edu/gallery.

Joseph Becker, Opium House, 1869–1870

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Working Weekend 2013

WW13 also featured some career training.

On the fourth floor of Eliot, NPR correspondent Robert Smith ’89 led a group of Reedies through an intensive two-day Radio Bootcamp. On Saturday, each student came up with the premise of a short story—known in the business as a “spot”— then conducted interviews, gathered sound, and edited the piece together.

Meanwhile, Reedies of an entrepreneurial bent were hunkered down in Vollum lecture hall for the StartUp Lab. Led by Bay Area technology entrepreneur

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photoS BY LEAH NASH

Some 99 alumni volunteers descended upon campus in February for the second annual Working Weekend, a three-day whirlwind of workshops, panels, and networking with the goal of jumpstarting Reed students’ careers.

The weekend kicked off with a series of panels covering a wide range of professions.

Students interested in legal careers headed to the panel Law in a Time of Cholera to hear Reed lawyers give advice about how to get a law degree without losing your soul. Reedies interested in graphic design and video games flocked to Is it Fun Yet? Entertainment Technology from Screen to Bits Other panels included: • Towers of Gold: How Capitalism and Finance Drive the Economy • International Diplomacy & Development • USAID & State Department • Medicine & Health • Science, Engineering, and Allied Professions • Internet/Software • Small Business • Write, Edit, Publish!

• No Change Without Some Change ($); Nonprofits and Philanthropy

Top left: a panel on nonprofits and philanthropy featured Sunny Daly ’03, David Gordon ’90, Martha Darling ’66 [trustee], Yee Wan Chon (Western States Center), and Johanna Thoeresz ’87. Above: NPR correspondent Robert Smith ’89 demonstrates how to do that “radio voice” in a two-day Radio Bootcamp.

Lucas Carlson ’05, the StartUp Lab was an intensive simulation of the process of creating and selling an idea. Students worked with entrepreneurs and investors who helped them incubate ideas for start-up companies and strategize ways to bring the products to market. The lab squeezed all the steps of an entrepreneur—inspiration, development, honing, and the pitch to an investor—into three short days, without ever leaving Vollum.

Connor LaBean ’14, Anjuli Dharna ’14, and Ben Stephens ’14 were awarded $2,500 to help propel Genebot, a robotic lab assistant, from conception to reality.

The idea for Genebot came last summer after Connor spent countless hours pipetting solutions in a Duke University lab for cloning experiments. A platform for DNA-sequence handling and cloning, Genebot would eliminate much of the manual labor from genetics research. It is

capable of sharing data for open-source experiments and is projected to be marketable at a cheaper price than current alternatives. Currently, Connor says, high-volume research is limited to biotech companies.

Genebot would make such research affordable to institutions of lesser means and enable graduate students and interns to spend more of their time doing science.

Joseph Warren ’13 and Jacob Canter ’14, pitched Agora, a mobile phone-enabled payment system for small and local businesses. Studying monetary economics, Joseph realized how small businesses are hampered by the relatively high transition costs of accepting credit cards. Agora (“marketplace” in Greek) is a smartphone application that would enable consumers to browse products from local businesses, making purchases through an Agora account. By eliminating credit cards as the middleman, not

Reed Shrinks Carbon Footprint

User experience wizard Bram Wessel ’90 brainstorms entrepreneurial ideas with Emily Crotteau ’13 in StartUp Lab.

only do consumers save money, Jacob says, they support both small businesses and local communities.

Chuks Emmanuel Enemchukwu ’16 proposed Maaha Edu, an open-source social platform accessible via mobile phones that would directly connect students in Anglophone West Africa to knowledge. By making learning more accessible, Chuks hopes this innovation can help to alleviate the high failure rate in the region’s schools.

Also making it to the final round but unable to present due to illness was Emily Crotteau ’13, whose start-up idea, Green Almanac, would establish a program to educate first-time gardeners.

WW13 was coordinated by Brooke Hunter, assistant director for strategic partnerships in Reed’s career services, who noted that the event saw a dramatic upswing in student engagement. “Having mentors’ profiles up early on the web pages encouraged students to reach out,” she said.

“Mentors appreciated the contact and hopefully students feel the tangible excitement to engage and to get help from mentors.”

The energy level at the events was pronounced. “We are so thankful to all those who took the time and made the investment to return to campus to share their insights with students,” said Mike Tesky, director of alumni and parent relations.

“This event is a testament to the power of an engaged alumni body.”

Interested in participating next year?

Find out more—including the full list of WW13 volunteers—at www.reed.edu/career /working_weekend. —Reporting by Alex

In a move that will significantly reduce its environmental impact, Reed has signed a three-year, $5.4 million contract with Ameresco Quantum to identify and implement changes that will minimize energy use, maximize equipment life, and maintain building livability.

After evaluating more than 960,000 square feet of campus buildings, AQ outlined a program of energy renewal and replacement that will yield a 12% reduction in electrical energy use, a 13% reduction in gas use, and a 28% reduction in water and sewer costs. The changes are estimated to cut operational utility costs by at least $2.7 million over the next 10 years and reduce annual CO2 emissions by 2.65 million pounds.

Work is already underway in the library, chemistry, Educational

makes an impact we can measure.”

The committee focused on projects that would result in measurable energy savings. One is installing a new, more efficient steam boiler.

Angell says the massive old boilers are “in ridiculously good condition,” but are designed to perform optimally on 40-degree days. During the summer the big boilers are constantly starting and stopping, which consumes energy and promotes wear and tear. The smaller boiler will handle summer loads more efficiently.

The boilers provide heat for many of the older buildings on campus. By contrast, each room in the four new Grove dorms has its own thermostat, with a system that can heat one room as it cools another. Heat is harvested from parts of the building that don’t want it and delivered to parts that do.

The projects should yield a 12% reduction in electricity use, a 13% reduction in gas use, and a 28% reduction in water and sewer costs.

Technology Center, Eliot Hall, Vollum College Center, sports center, Gray Campus Center, and the Physical Plant. Energy Trust of Oregon is funding $300,000 of this work.

Six years ago, Reed adopted a sustainability mission statement that recognized the relationship between the campus and the planet. A committee fielded proposals—everything from building a cob bicycle shelter to investing in wind power.

“We quickly found out that there are a whole bunch of $100,000 to $200,000 things you can do that are not going to have any real impact,” says Townsend Angell, director of facilities operations. “We need to prudently manage the money that is given to Reed. We don’t really know the future of wind power. But we can invest in a piece of equipment like a boiler that works better and

Another interesting project involves carbon dioxide sensors in places like Kaul to notify the heating system when people arrive. The sensors estimate the number of people in the room by the carbon dioxide they exhale and adjust the air intake accordingly.

Reed has installed solar panels on the Theatre Annex, the two warehouses, Birchwood Apartments, Reed College Apartments, the Health and Counseling Center, 28 West, and the Farm, Garden, and Canyon houses. Other improvements include LEDs, low-flush toilets, water-saving showerheads, and aerating faucets.

Some institutions offset their carbon footprint by purchasing energy credits. Angell says Reed is not only authentically shrinks the carbon footprint, but reducing utility bills. —Randall S. Barton

Blum ’14 and miles bryan ’13

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Empire of the Griffin Connecting Reed alumni across the globe

From the Alumni Board President

By Chantal Sudbrack ’97

I want to focus on three topics in this letter: life beyond Reed, diversity, and the Portland Pride Parade.

LIFE BEYOND REED The alumni board wants to connect alumni and parents with each other and the college in a collaboration that helps current students, recent graduates, and midcareer alumni advance their plans for life beyond Reed.

In building up these relation-

ships, we aim to cultivate a happier, more prosperous, and balanced community of individuals who feel a closer and richer connection with one another and Reed.

Find out more at www.reed.edu/career /alumni.

FOSTERING DIVERSITY Reed is an incredibly challenging place, and exemplars play a crucial role in fostering student success. As a member of the outreach commit-

tee of the alumni board, Alea Adigweme ’06 is facilitating connections among alumni and students who identify as people of color, GLBTQ, and/ or first-generation college attendees. She has been collaborating with Crystal Williams, dean for institutional diversity, on a series of oncampus introductory gatherings between students and alumni. We need your assistance to make this initiative

fruitful for all parties involved.

Alumni have varying preferences regarding their modes of engagement; please consider getting in touch with Alea at alea@alumni.reed.edu with your thoughts on practical ways to create enrichment and mentorship opportunities that will connect students, young alumni, and professionally established alumni who identify in the aforementioned ways.

p h o t o b y D av i d B r i c h f o r d • C o u r t e s y o f t h e C l e v e l a n d M u s e u m o f A r t

Postcard From Cleveland

Popular online services for sharing wedding albums and baby pictures have paved the way for do-it-yourself (DIY) photobooks, which have in turn revolutionized how artists do art and promote themselves. In December, 16 Reedies (spanning 44 years in class years), family, and friends from northeast Ohio attended a gallery talk on this art genre by Barbara Tannenbaum ’75, Cleveland Museum of Art’s curator of photography.

Barbara’s exhibition, DIY: Photographers & Books, was heralded as one of

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the best exhibits in Cleveland last fall, and one could see why! “It’s very different from almost every other display in the museum,” Tannenbaum says. “You can handle all the art. And it’s very inexpensive. If you like it, you can buy it.” One of Tannenbaum’s favorite pieces is the teeny, tiny Things Darby Chewed, a chronicling of items that the photographer’s dog got its mouth on. Another multivolume work titled ASTRONOMICAL boasts one letter of the title on each spine. More importantly, the pages take the reader through

the entire solar system. Each double-page spread represents 2 million kilometers, and most simply show empty black space.

An aptly named piece, Psycho, captures every frame from the famous Hitchcock film. After the tour, many in the group stayed to share in conversation, food, and drinks at the museum’s recently opened Provenance Café.

Live in or near the Cleveland area? Want to join us?

Email Chantal Sudbrack ’97 at csudbrack@alumni .reed.edu.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE Last year, Reed joined the Rose Festival for the first time since 1936. This year, it’s Pride. Gay Pride, Queer Pride, Reed Pride.

Reunions, June 12–16, concludes on the same day as the Portland Pride Parade. What a great time for our community to join our community. Who’s interested in marching?

More broadly, we are hoping to develop a network of GLBTQ alumni and students who are

willing to mentor, share their stories and experiences, and increase the visibility of our community in the broader Reed community.

If you are interested in getting involved, please contact David Devine ’96 at devined @mac.com. David is also considering the idea of coordinating a “Reed train” for alumni traveling to Reunions ’13 from Vancouver, B.C., and Seattle; if this sounds fun to you, drop him a line!

Hey! Have ideas for organizing Reed events in your own city? Alumni board members Julia C hamberlain ’03 (julia.chamberlain @gmail.com) and Paul Levy ’72 (plevy@citizen.org) are looking for Reedies who are enthusiastic about planning occasional events like Thirsty Third Thursdays in the following cities:

two collections illustrate the breadth of the dissident movement.

Samizdat branched out into several manifestations. Magnitizdat derives from magnetic tape and was mostly produced on homemade LPs made from x-ray plates, on pirated LP discs, reel-to-reel tape, and cassettes. Underground music pa u l l e v y ’ 7 2

Postcard from Washington, D.C. “What is this?” Sophie Mayer ’11 asked as she struggled to make a connection between a postcard with the chemical structure for haloperidol and the Cold War cultural artifacts displayed in front of her. Haloperidol, an antipsychotic used to treat schizophrenia, was employed by the Soviet regime in punitive psychiatry. The postcard part of Baltimore’s Smoloskyp Publishing House effort to draw attention to Soviet dissenters and to the brutality of psychiatric abuse.

Alumni get-togethers often come in the form of networking, sporting, and fundraising events. But the D.C. chapter opted for something a little different in September—a guided view of the samizdat materials at George Washington University’s Gelman Library. Samizdat comes from truncating the Russian самсебяиздатъ , meaning “I published myself,” in contrast to officially sanctioned publishing houses. At the heart of the collection are materials created, published, and distributed through informal political, religious, and cultural circles.

Our group explored two archives. The first held essentially political materials: letters of protest, trial transcripts, descriptions of arrest, human-rights observance, and descriptions of confinement. Curator Mark Yoffe referred to this as “classic samizdat.” The second featured “zines” (self-published magazines) and extensive holdings of historical recordings of Soviet bard and rock music. Together the

Far Flung

Zines of dissent, an archive of samizdat materials from the Soviet bloc at George Washington University’s Gelman Library.

and poetry readings became the samizdat of performing art. There was artistic samizdat, created in a variety of artistic media from drawings and cartoons to photography, oil paintings, sculpture, and installations. Underground exhibits became the samizdat of curatorial art.

There were also samizdat lectures, symposia, readings, and recitals.

Samizdat became an industry. Though political samizdat was usually provided free, other material—translations,

Ann Arbor, MI Philadelphia, PA Austin, TX Eugene, OR Madison, WI Phoenix, AZ Memphis, TN Nashville, TN Paris, France Toronto, Canada Other international cities

music, art—carried a price. There was a significant black market for samizdat recordings of Western bands.

Alumni were full of questions. Freya De Cola ’67 admitted that the lecture challenged her association of samizdat with literature and asked how the movement fit with analogous movements happening worldwide. Paul Levy ’72 delved into questions about how Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty verified documents that came through their archive.

James Meador ’09 impressed the crowd with his familiarity with obscure pieces in the collection relating to Soviet Buddhology. James wrote his senior thesis on the topic and pressed Yoffe for a more nuanced explanation of the cacophony of voices found in samizdat.

Yoffe discussed the tensions between the groups represented in the archives. He emphasized that the samizdat method gave expression to divergent agendas and was adopted by groups that disliked one another outright.

The evening was topped off with Georgian food and wine as we mingled by a display telling the story of two prominent dissidents—Yuly Daniel and Andrei Siniavsky—whose trial marked a turn in the life of samizdat. During bursts of chatter between bites, stories of Reedies’ archival processing and researching at the Moscow archive Memorial, and thoughts on the recently sentenced Russian punk band Pussy Riot made their way into conversation. —Kristin Williams ’07

march 2013 Reed magazine 11

The Science Bug

Reed students bring “mad science” to Portland schools.

Randall S. Barton

Break out the goggles! Reedies show Portland schoolkids that science is fun.

By Randall S. Barton

The fifth-graders squirm with excitement as three Reedies pass out candy-colored safety goggles in the classroom at Lewis Elementary School, just a couple of miles from the college campus.

One boy, distressed that his goggles are pink, begs that someone trade with him.

“We are not trading goggles!” teacher Sylvia Jen interjects from the back of the classroom. She directs her 28 pupils’ attention back to the Reedies who are ready to lead them through a chemistry experiment in which premeasured ingredients are combined in plastic zip bags.

“Okay,” says Cole Perkinson ’13, a chemistry/physics major. “Science is about observation. What do we observe happening in the bags?”

“It’s changing color!” squeals one little girl.

“It’s fizzing!” shouts another.

“The bag is warming up,” a boy adds.

“Very good,” Cole says. “These are all signs that a chemical reaction is occurring.”

Every week Cole, Lisa Hiura ’14, and Erin Kleinfeld ’13 show Jen’s class that science is a fun way to learn about the world.

12 Reed magazine march 2013

The trio is part of the Reed Science Outreach Program, which has been bringing the thrill of scientific inquiry to Portland schoolkids for more than 20 years.

The program had its origins in the summer of 1991; originally, high schoolers came to Reed to take biology lessons from Reedies.

After four years, the program was reworked so that Reed students went to elementary schools to teach lessons developed by the Reed biology faculty.

Professor Robert Kaplan [biology 1983–] put a lot of energy into creating the program. “Some of us in the department had kids in elementary school and we saw what could be possible with them,” he says.

“We knew they would be receptive.”

The program was an instant hit. Demand for the Reedies was so great that the focus was narrowed to schools with significant populations of disadvantaged students who have fewer opportunities to do science.

Since then, roughly 400 Reedies have taught science to nearly 10,000 schoolchildren.

In 2011, Cole and chemistry major Li Zha ’12 started a Chemistry Outreach Program with funding from the SEEDS program. Twelve Reedies led fifth-graders

through experiments such as plugging a pickle into a wall socket to demonstrate how acid conducts electricity.

“The kids really loved chemical reactions, of course,” says Cole. “How magical is it to mix things and see what happens? And they got a very positive image of Reed as a result of our being there.”

This year the chemistry and biology programs were merged into the Reed Science Outreach Program. Some 42 Reedies offer science lessons in 19 classrooms in six Portland schools, grades four through seven.

The program’s curriculum (designed by Reed faculty) is aligned with state and national science standards.

Fifth-grade teacher Sylvia Jen is passionate about science and reminds her pupils at Lewis Elementary that the Reedies provide science lessons that she does not have the budget for. Several times a year, the class tours the Reed campus, including a visit to the nuclear reactor.

“The program gives [the fifth-graders] a chance to see people who are really enthused about science,” Jen says. Parents tell her their children have developed a newfound interest in science.

The program’s annual budget is $70,000, which pays for wages, administration, and materials (participating Reedies earn a modest hourly wage, some via a work-study program). It was originally supported by grants from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Miller Foundation, and the Rose E. Tucker Charitable Trust.

Last year An Duclos, the mother of Levi Goodrich Duclos ’15, made a generous gift in his memory. (Levi died last year while hiking in the Green Mountains of Vermont.)

“Levi’s mom said he talked about this program more than anything else he was doing at Reed,” says outreach coordinator Kristy Gonyer ’10, who hires and trains the Reedies. “She wanted to help the program continue to grow, and make it possible to hire more Reedies into the program.”

Recently Diane Perkinson, Cole’s mother and the wife of professor David Perkinson [mathematics 1990–], made another generous gift to support the program for the next couple of years.

Science majors fill roughly half of the teaching positions; other majors are welcomed as long as they are enthusiastic about science. To get ready for teaching, Reedies practice their experiments before a group of elementary-school teachers, who offer tips on presentation and managing a classroom.

Energized by the experience, many of the Reedies in the program go on to pursue teaching careers.

Teaching fifth-graders takes Cole back to when he first got interested in science.

He has discovered that he must adapt to a wide range of learning styles and have absolute clarity about the ideas he’s presenting.

“I actually learn things about science working with the kids, because they approach ideas with fresh minds,” he says.

“This has been an indispensable aspect of my Reed education.”

During class, the fifth-graders ask the Reed students “What do you do at college?” and similar questions. “The children are at a point where they can still make a lot of choices that will help set them on that path,” Gonyer says.

Science Outreach uncovers a lot of things that don’t show up on the periodic table.

Bringing science to children develops poise, self-respect, and leadership. It also broadens Reed’s commitment to the life of the mind.

REED ON THE ROAD 2013

Celebrate the success of the Centennial Campaign and welcome John R. Kroger.

Alumni, parents, and friends: you made the historic $200 million Centennial Campaign a rousing success.

Celebrate with us at convivial events in chapter cities nationwide, where you will • hear how the campaign’s success is changing students’ lives, • meet President John R. Kroger, • respond to insights from an alumni panel, and • help us to create a vision for Reed’s next century.

Washington, DC

New York, NY

Los Angeles, CA

Chicago, IL

Boston, MA

Portland, OR

MARCH 6

MARCH 16 MARCH 18

MARCH 19 MARCH 21 APRIL 4

Register now alumni.reed.edu/rotr

Go Further

academic.reed.edu/outreach

REED COLLEGE

YOU DiD It! The obstacles would have daunted Odysseus. But Reed alumni, parents, and friends—yes, loyal readers, that’s you—have successfully completed the most ambitious campaign in our 100-year history.

The Centennial Campaign was launched in 2005 with the goal of preparing Reed to face the challenges of the next century. Within two years, the U.S. economy slid into the worst downturn since the Great Depression.

Against great odds, including increasing pressure on higher education, readers of this magazine came through with gifts totalling more than $200 million.

Ultimately this campaign was about people, not money, and we’d like to share how you invested in them. These are the achievements of the Centennial Campaign.

“In an age where so much has changed, Reed’s founding precepts remain relevant, powerful, and—thankfully—largely unchanged. The education program is long and expensive, but it has produced remarkably effective people, from scholars to business leaders, who’ve made important contributions to society . . . I still believe in the importance of a well-developed life of the mind as something of real and lasting value. I am gratified that Reedies today still care as much about these ideals as they did 50 years ago when I was a student.”

—Daniel Greenberg ’62

By Randall S. Barton and Matt Kelly

14 Reed magazine march 2013

Launched the Centennial Campaign with a pledge of $10 million.

$203,456,896 Integrity From its founding, Reed has been guided by the principle of integrity—integrity in its multiple connotations of honor, wholeness, and independence. For individuals on campus, integrity finds voice in an honor principle that governs academic and social behavior.

For the institution, it resonates in Reed’s enduring adherence to its founding values and in the determination to measure any single achievement by its contribution to the health of the college as a whole. This campaign called upon every part of the Reed family to come together in a common effort to sustain and nurture our founders’ unique creation.

Alumni, parents, trustees, and friends gave at all levels to surpass this historic goal; in fact, the number of parent and alumni major donors doubled since the last campaign.

total raised by the campaign

$149.7 million 612 Total added to the endowment during the seven years of the campaign.

12,732

Total number of donors.

62%

Proportion of alumni who gave to the campaign.

889

The number of young alumni donors (defined as alumni who graduated within the past decade) who gave to Reed last year, up 85% from 2004.

Reed students who contributed to the campaign through the Reedies for Reedies initiative. There were 286 student donors in 2012 compared to 13 in 2006.

$27,440,226

Given to the Annual Fund.

These gifts enable the college to be nimble in responding to its most immediate needs.

Dependable annual gifts enable us to welcome freshmen to campus who couldn’t otherwise afford to attend, provide mentorship opportunities with faculty, and help Reed stay on the cutting edge.

march 2013 Reed magazine 15

Inquiry A Reed education requires a highly individualized approach. From the intimate setting of a Hum 110 conference, Reed students progress through a variety of experiences that culminate in the scholarly partnership of the senior thesis. To enable the faculty to give every student such personalized attention, the campaign sought to add enough faculty positions to achieve the college’s long-standing goal of a 10-to-1 student-faculty ratio. The faculty also wanted to strengthen small departments and those facing chronically high enrollments, as well as to broaden the reach of the curriculum in a few carefully selected areas.

One area of the curriculum receiving special attention was the performing arts. Investment in the departments of dance, music, and theatre strengthened the contributions that these disciplines make to the overall academic program, and will afford all students valuable opportunities for collaborative work, creative exploration, and expressive performance.

18

New professors were added in anthropology, chemistry, computational biology, economics, environmental studies-chemistry, environmental studiespolitical science, linguistics, philosophy, political science, psychology, Chinese, English, Russian, Spanish, music, dance, and theatre.

10.16 to one

Student-faculty ratio, meeting a long-held goal.

$13.1 million

Given to construct a performing arts building. Just as scientists need good laboratory space to conduct research, dance, music, and theatre depend on appropriate facilities to learn and perform.

This new teaching facility will bring the three performing arts departments into one building packed with stages, studios, classrooms, and practice spaces, at a total cost of $28 million.

(The remaining $14 million was financed through bonds.)

$10,600,000

Amount raised for student and faculty research.

academic support

Where intellectual life is paramount, knowing how to learn is a primary asset. Reed has developed multiple resources that complement the curriculum and help students manage academic demands through peer tutoring, cooperative study environments, writing support, workshops, and individualized coaching. One such resource is the Dorothy Johansen (DoJo) House.

2,174

Number of times students signed into the Dorothy Johansen House last year.

1,965

Hours of individual tutoring provided last year, up nearly 30% from the previous year.

“ The liberal arts allow you to make multiple suppositions and to explore possibilities in an intellectual way. If you’re doing a production of A Doll’s House, you have to make a whole bunch of choices and will discover the consequences of those choices.

Our lives are filled with situations in which we have to make choices and live with the consequences of those choices. The practice of art teaches something about that.”

—Kathleen Worley [theatre 1985–]

16 Reed magazine march 2013

“ Whether it’s being pushed to defend my ideas in conference, performing EEG research in the lab, or dancing with friends in the SU like no one’s watching, I am grateful for all the academic and social experiences Reed has afforded me. Reed has challenged me and humbled me . . . I am truly grateful to have received financial aid.

Thank you for your generosity.”

—Loretta Yiu ’13

march 2013 Reed magazine 17

Community

feature

Throughout its history, students and faculty have been drawn to Reed by the promise of finding others who share their passion for knowledge. They seek colleagues who will challenge their understanding of the world and who, in the process, will become lifelong friends.

To create a genuine learning community, Reed must be able to attract and support students representing the broadest possible range of viewpoints, backgrounds, and life experiences. Many of these students cannot hope to attend Reed without financial assistance to help meet the cost. Through the campaign, Reed’s budget has been able to keep pace with rapidly growing need from continuing students and has allowed the college to fully fund the financial need of all entering students.

$74,388,424 $65,176

50% “ I have a reverence and a deep appreciation for the excellence of Reed College, which is one of the most distinguished and distinctive institutions in the entire Pacific Northwest, and that includes not just educational institutions. There is real quality, authenticity, and integrity to Reed.”

—Colin Diver [president 2002–12]

“ The day I received my financial aid letter from the college was one of the happiest days of my life; I remember sitting at a coffee shop with a friend. When I got the news that my parents would be able to send me to Reed, I stood straight up on my chair, fists in the air, and screamed ‘Yes!’” —Tristan Nieto ’13

18 Reed magazine march 2013

Proportion of students on financial aid in 2012–13. In an economic climate where families’ needs intensified, Reed maintained its high level of support and kept its promise that no student should ever drop out of Reed because their family ran out of money.

$36,625

Average financial aid package in 2012–13. In addition, the average graduating debt for the class of ’12 was $19,407, compared to a national average of $26,600.

[This figure includes federal and state grants, loans and work study, and outside scholarships.]

$21.9 million

Reed’s annual financial aid budget, up from $13.9 million in 2005–06.

[This figure does not include federal and state grants, loans and work study, or outside scholarships.]

Median parental income of students on aid.

25.3%

Proportion of the student body composed of historically underrepresented groups (i.e. African American, Hispanic, Native American, Asian, and Pacific Islander). Was 13.7% in 2004.

[This figure does not include international students.]

19%

Proportion of Reed students who qualify for Pell Grants, federal aid that supports the neediest students from lowincome families. Up from 14% at the start of the campaign.

66%

Proportion of the freshmen starting in 2008 who graduated within four years. By contrast, those who began in 2004 had a four-year graduation rate of 59%.

893

Students who now live on campus thanks to five dorms built during the campaign. Studies show a direct correlation between living on campus and graduating on time. In 2004 the figure was 743.

p h o t o s b y L e a h N a s h , M at t d ’a n n u n z i o , o r i n z y va n ’ 0 4 , k at e b r e d e s o n

Amount raised for financial aid, blasting through the original goal of $50 million. This was by far the largest single category of the campaign.

“ The Centennial Campaign’s goals, developed by the faculty, energized the entire Reed community around strengthening Reed. It was heartening to see alumni step up with important leadership joined by our other friends.”

—Hugh Porter [vice president for college relations]

“ For the first time in my life I feel challenged and engaged intellectually. Since my childhood, I’ve searched for a place like this and, thanks to [a community of donors] I am able to attend. Thank you so very much.”

—Grant Burgess ’13

“ I wake up every day joyous and grateful for the direction my life has taken and it is, quite literally, only possible because of your generosity. So although these two words seem insufficient, they are written with my deepest sincerity: Thank you.”

—Serra Shelton ’15

march 2013 Reed magazine 19

Behind the Mask Artist-activist Lynn Bowers ’65 sculpts a life in clay.

By Laurie Lindquist

It’s a jungle in here.

Monkeys bare their teeth. Panthers lurk in the corners. Bats hiss. But only one voice speaks.

It’s the voice of Lynn Bowers, creator of the menacing menagerie. She describes the project that has consumed her Fox Hollow Studio in Eugene, Oregon, for two years: constructing masks and puppets for Mowgli, the ballet based on Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book by choreographer Toni Pimble, which premieres at the Eugene Ballet in April.

Lynn has made masks, puppets, and costumes for ballet, opera, and theatre in Eugene for 30 years—everything from Die Fledermaus to Swan Lake. To prepare for Mowgli, she read Kipling’s stories and pored over images of Indian, Thai, and Balinese art.

She chose decorative elements like metallic ribbon and acrylic gemstones. She mixed paint. Then she got out her clay and started shaping and sculpting animal faces.

Her fired clay sculptures are used to make molds, from which papier-mâché or Zotefoam masks are formed. Blank surfaces come alive when Lynn applies her palette of brilliant colors. Eyes glow. Snouts protrude. All of the masks are lightweight and durable, and, in a collection numbering in the hundreds, no two are decorated alike.

Lynn used the Asiatic black bear as a sculptural model for Baloo, Kipling’s “sleepy brown bear,” and painted the resulting mask green. Baloo’s copper-colored eyes peer out beneath thick black brows. They observe, but never threaten. At the back of his head, and twice its size, is a shimmering circular headdress—glorious with its weave of red fabrics, golden threads, and tiny mirrors.

Lynn learned calligraphic brush strokes in classes with Lloyd Reynolds [English & art, 1929–69]. Evidence of that association includes the serpentine leaf patterns

20 Reed magazine march 2013

that form the coats of wolves that adopt the human Mowgli, as well as italic letter form in signage everywhere in the studio.

In addition to her work in the performing arts, Lynn has done public sculpture and residential and commercial mural painting, and she earned a grand prize for her “mad cow” suits featured in an Earth Day celebration in Eugene. The Eugene Weekly selected her as the best artist of 2004.

She also has put on limited exhibitions

of her ceramics in Eugene, in Portland, and on the Oregon coast, including those with Lucinda Parker McCarthy ’66. For 40 years, most of Lynn’s work has been shown and sold directly from her residential studio, set on the edge of corporate industrial forestland. In the showroom, shelves built by her partner, Alan Foster, hold vases and pitchers, mugs and goblets, and plates and candlesticks, incised with her signature bold patterns.

photos by laurie lindquist

For the 2007 anthology Marguerite Wildenhain and the Bauhaus, Lynn wrote: “I first came to Pond Farm from Reed College, 19 years old, as agitated and ardent as most teenagers. The beauty, the quiet and the clay centered me.” She described the life lived by the hand as simple, dignified, and honorable.

The craft she learned from Marguerite has helped her become, as Marguerite intended, one who is fully human.

Although she could have been an artist without attending college, Lynn says, she relies on her Reed education in her work as an environmental activist—work that she has done in tandem with her art for 10 years.

Eyes glow and blank surfaces come alive when Lynn applies her palette of brilliant colors.

Lynn began working with clay early in life.

She earned a degree in fine arts at Reed in the combined program with the Museum Art School (now the Pacific Northwest College of Art). “I loved Reed,” she says. For the first time in her life, she encountered “likeminded people” and felt at home. Reed also supported her inclination to pursue a selfdirected and nontraditional career.

At the museum school, she studied with Manuel Izquierdo, whose sculptures

and prints are considered to be the most lyrical of his generation. And from 1962 until 1980, she attended summer workshops at the Pond Farm Workshop in northern California, where she studied with Marguerite Wildenhain, master potter from the Bauhaus and one of the century’s most influential teachers and artists. Marguerite urged Lynn to remember what moved her and to draw from it as a source of inspiration throughout her life.

Her ability to write concisely and to evaluate evidence (Is it plausible? Is it true? Does the evidence actually support the assertion?) have helped her cut through the red tape and hype of herbicide spray practices being used for forest management in Oregon.

As an organizer for Forestland Dwellers, her neighborhood nonprofit, she has made maps, documented statistics, written essays, given speeches, and held prayer circles at corporate timber offices. She was appointed to a county advisory committee examining vegetation management and has testified at the Oregon Board of Forestry on the inadequacy of forest practices rules.

She also drew the Kid-Safe Coloring Book for Forestland Dwellers and the Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides. The health of children and adults alike and the freedom to live in an uncompromised environment spur her efforts.

Being an activist is less than a stone’s throw from Lynn’s work as an artist. Both occupations demonstrate her commitment to live simply and whole and to be a steward of the gifts she has been given: a keen eye, a sharp intellect, and a passion for things of the earth.

march 2013 Reed magazine 21

pathogenius At first glance, Reed would seem to be an unlikely incubator for medical research.

Unattached to a medical school or nursing program, its focus on liberal arts and sciences might appear rather remote from the pressing issues of medicine.

What does Aristophanes have to do with astrocytes? What does Plato say about peptides?

Turns out the answer is: plenty. In fact, approximately 1,242, or roughly 8%, of our alumni are employed in health care and hundreds more are directly involved in biomedical research. In this issue, we decided to highlight a small fraction of the amazing work that Reed and Reedies have produced in this field.

From the mechanics of multiple sclerosis to the role of zinc to the development of cheaper anti-malarial drugs, you’ll find Reedies at the frontier of human knowledge, demonstrating (if any proof were needed) the vital link between the liberal arts and sciences and the healing arts and sciences.

Mary McMillan pioneered the profession of physical therapy in the U.S. and was the founding president of the Women’s Physical Therapeutic Association (later American Physiotherapy Association).

22 Reed magazine march 2013

Renowned bacteriologist Calista Eliot Causey spent decades identifying deadly pathogens in the jungles of Brazil and Nigeria with her husband (and former student) Ottis. Discovered nearly 50 new viruses.

Naval surgeon Bud Zeller served on the battleship U.S.S. Tennessee in WWII, saw action at battles of Leyte Gulf and Surigao Strait, and pioneered use of hypnosis for post-operative pain relief.

Pfizer biochemist Ken Koe took a closer look at a discarded molecule and reckoned that with slight modification it could inhibit the reuptake of serotonin. Result? Zoloft.

Yale biophysicist Don Engelman performs research on how peptides can target—and destroy—tumors.

Geneticist Bruce Baker discovered the doublesex gene, which plays a key role in determining the sex of fruit flies, and has made important contributions to understanding the genetic basis of courtship behavior.

Computer scientist Richard Crandall devised fiendishly complex algorithms to predict the propagation of Asian flu—and other infectious diseases—using Census data.

Epidemiologist and mathematician Chris Amos identified genetic mutations that make some smokers more susceptible to lung cancer than others.

Chemist and mountaineer Arlene Blum has led the charge against the use of carcinogenic flame-retardants in children’s sleepwear and furniture. Also led an allwomen’s team to the peak of Annapurna.

In 1990, neurosurgeon Wise Young established the first effective therapy for spinal-cord injury, proving that such injury need not be irreversible. He is now a leader in the development of new therapies for spinal-cord injury and treated actor Christopher Reeve.

Must allopathic and alternative medicine forever be in conflict? Lorenzo Cohen spearheads the use of acupuncture and yoga for patients undergoing radiotherapy at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Genetic engineer Pamela Ronald has developed a strain of flood-resistant rice that could prevent famine in flood-prone areas of the globe.

Physician Kinari Thomas Webb established Health in Harmony, a clinic in a remote area of Borneo where the destruction of rainforest threatens both the ecosystem and human health.

The clinic treats local villagers and helps them fight illegal logging.

Many parts of Haiti suffer from poor sanitation and depleted soil. Sasha leads SOIL, a nonprofit that installs composting toilets that stop the spread of disease while producing fertilizer.

march 2013 Reed magazine 23

Element of Surprise

Reed biologists investigate a gut-wrenching mystery. m at t d ’a n n u n z i o

By Alex Blum ’14

Deep in the basement of the biology building, Anand Panchal ’13 spent the last semester infecting human cells with one of the most devastating microbes on earth.

The bacterium in question is enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (known as EPEC), a sinister pathogen that is one of the developing world’s leading causes of diarrhea—a disease that is easily managed with modern medicine, but which can be deadly to children in impoverished regions with limited access to quality health care. Diarrhea is the second-highest cause of death Professor Jay Mellies and bio major Anand Panchal ’13 look at the role of zinc in enteropathogenic E. coli. among children under five years old, according to the World Health Organization, killing 1.5 But new findings suggest that there gene expression to make it less virulent. million of them in the year 2009 alone. may be a way to mitigate EPEC’s devasMellies found no evidence for that For the past three years, Professor tating effects. Epidemiological studies in theory, but he did discover something Jay Mellies [biology 1999–] and his stu- developing countries show that patients else. Somehow zinc disrupts the memdents have been investigating an uncon- who receive zinc, a metal common- brane around each cell of EPEC that ventional weapon in the battle against ly used to prevent corrosion of other allows it to destroy the lining of the EPEC—zinc. metals by rust, recover faster and suf- intestine. In the same way that zinc EPEC attaches to the cells of the fer fewer symptoms. protects chain-link fences from corintestine, and assaults them with corExactly how zinc subdues EPEC rosion by rain and salt, it protects gut rosive proteins. This makes it difficult or remains unclear, however—which is cells from corrosion by bacteria. “It’s not impossible for the gut to absorb nutri- where Reed comes in. Professor Mellies, necessarily killing the bacteria, it’s just ents; instead of digesting food and dis- who specializes in the genetics of bacte- knocking them down a little,” explains carding the waste as excrement, the ria, first began investigating the ques- Mellies, who published these results body rejects it wholesale and flushes tion at the behest of researchers at the together with his colleagues last year it down the alimentary canal, resulting University of Buffalo and the University in BMC Microbiology. in dehydration, malnourishment, and of New Mexico, who suspected that zinc Though they now have a better idea of even death. was specifically altering the bacterium’s what is happening, Mellies and Panchal

Albert served as a flight surgeon in WWII, directed the medical phase of the astronaut selection program, and was one of the first doctors to grapple with overcoming the limits of the human body in space.

24 Reed magazine march 2013

In 1942, Louis, then a Yale pharmacologist, showed that mustard gas—the dreaded WWI chemical weapon—could be used to treat lymphosarcoma, opening the door to modern chemotherapy.

As a Stanford zoologist, Jane helped create one of the first effective polio vaccines, which later became the foundation for the Salk vaccine. Also carved totem poles.

EPEC in the Intestine unabsorbed nutrients and water expelled as diarrhea

epec

intestinal microvilli

pedestal

epithelial cell

Enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) attach to the cells of the intestine, and assault them with corrosive proteins, destroying the intestinal microvilli (the finger like protrusions that allow nutrients to be absorbed) and forming actin-based pedestals. Instead of digesting food, and discarding the waste as excrement, the body rejects it wholesale and flushes it down the alimentary canal, resulting in dehydration, malnourishment, and even death.

are continuing to unravel exactly how zinc weakens the EPEC membrane. One possibility is that zinc makes it harder for EPEC to latch onto the intestinal lining; another is that it makes it harder for it to release the proteins that actually corrode the lining.

Mellies has worked with several Reed students in this line of inquiry, including Katherine Thomas ’11, Michael Turvey ’12, and Neil Evans ’12, who are listed as coauthors on the BMC Microbiology paper. The project, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health, is not just giving a token role to students. “Our research is student driven,” says Mellies. “It’s student

dependent. I couldn’t have done the work without them.”

“It’s been a bumpy ride with some successes and some failures, but I have enjoyed the lab work immensely,” says Panchal, who plans to attend either medical school or a PhD program in microbiology, and is glad for the chance to work on a project with “immediate healthcare implications.”

Armed with a better understanding of how zinc eases the symptoms of EPEC and other forms of E. coli diarrhea, health authorities are more likely to adopt it as a standard therapy. Indeed, with antibiotic resistance becoming more pervasive, the need for alternative treatment is more

Julius was a flight surgeon who served with the Flying Tigers during WWII. After the war, he moved to Los Angeles, where he cared for veterans and immigrants, earning him the nickname “Godfather of Chinatown.”

intense than ever. Nor is the issue confined to developing nations. In 2011, an outbreak of foodborne E. coli disease in Germany resulted in 51 deaths and thousands of cases of serious illness. “Acute diarrheal infections are a huge problem worldwide,” says Mellies, who is optimistic that zinc can play an important role in treating the disease.

Political science major Alex Blum ’14 is a lover, a fighter, and a Quest editor. He’s mostly just a Quest editor, though.

GO FURTHER

“Zinc-induced envelope stress diminishes type III secretion in enteropathogenic Escherichia coli,” published in BMC Microbiology, September 2012.

Renowned cardiologist Hank Akiyama was on the scene of virtually every cardiac arrest that occurred in Juneau, Alaska, from 1969 until 1982.

march 2013 Reed magazine 25

From Toads to Tumors Epidemiologist Preetha Rajaraman ’94 examines why some people are more susceptible to brain cancer than others.

By Romel Hernandez

Preetha Rajaraman arrived at Reed expecting to major in the humanities— literature and theatre. “I didn’t think of myself as much of a scientist,” she says.

But courses with professors such as Arthur Glasfeld [chemistry 1989–], David Griffiths [physics 1978–2009], Steve Black [biology 1989–2012], and Bob Kaplan [biology 1983–] changed her mind. “That’s when I decided, ‘Maybe this could be my path.’”

Those classes started Preetha down a career path she could never have anticipated, taking her from a game reserve in Botswana to a research lab in Washington, D.C. Today she is a noted epidemiologist for the National Cancer Institute investigating the risk factors of brain cancer.

Preetha’s research is aimed at understanding how genetic variations make some people more susceptible to environmental factors (e.g., smoking cigarettes) linked to cancer. Her work ultimately may point the way to preventive strategies—reducing children’s exposure to the ionizing radiation in x-rays, for example—and may even lead to breakthroughs in chemotherapy treatment.

Raised in Africa by Indian parents, Preetha attended the Maru-a-Pula international school in Botswana. As a high schooler she had never heard of Reed until two fellow students went there.

They reported back, touting the college’s

Professor of Molecular Biology at Memorial SloanKettering Cancer Center, and ace violinist, Mark originated the “ball and stick” model of transcription factors and conducts research on how to turn genes off and on.

26 Reed magazine march 2013

academics, so she took a chance on applying. She was soon traveling across the world to Portland. And while she found right away that Reed lived up to its reputation for intellectual rigor, she was surprised by its freewheeling atmosphere. “At Reed, there is no one way to be,” she says. “You are accepted, and students are interested in who you are, where you come from.

“ She launched pathbreaking studies that seemed improbable, if not impossible, until she accomplished them.” —Patricia Hartge, NCI She thrived at Reed. Mentored by Kaplan, she got the opportunity to travel on his summer student trek to the jungles of South Korea in 1993 to study the Asian fire-bellied toad and eventually wrote her thesis on the mating calls of that particular amphibian.

After graduating with a degree in biology and a plan to work with wildlife, she deferred her admission to the Yale School of Forestry to spend time at the Gaborone Game Reserve in Botswana.

And while she enjoyed working with animals (the reserve is known for its diverse bird species, as well as an assortment of wildebeest, antelope, etc.), a stint at Botswana’s Department of Health, where she analyzed health statistics, changed her course.

Making a choice between studying animals and humans, she opted

Robert is one of the world’s leading experts on Hansen’s Disease (aka leprosy) and has published more than 120 papers on the care and treatment of patients afflicted by this ancient and stigmatized illness.

for the latter. Instead of going to Yale, she earned a master’s degree in environmental health at the University of Washington and a PhD in epidemiology at John Hopkins.

Joining the National Institute of Health’s National Cancer Institute as a predoctoral fellow in 2001, Preetha studied the effects of lead exposure on brain tumors. Her more recent work has focused on the carcinogenic effects of early exposure to radiation. She was drawn to investigate brain tumors, she says, because “they had been studied for so long, yet so little was known about them.” The past decade of research, she notes, has seen huge strides in understanding the causes and improving the treatment of brain cancer.

At the NCI she is known as a relentless worker, unafraid to tackle daunting

Susan was the victim of a violent crime at age 16 but refused to let herself be defined by that experience and now directs the Trauma and Trauma-Informed Care Program at SAMHSA.

These images pinpoint a low-grade glioma, a tumor that arises in the glial cells of the brain.

challenges, whether that has meant plowing through a mountain of data on exposure to lead or bringing together scientists to collaborate on a study of glioma, a deadly type of brain cancer. “She has launched pathbreaking studies that seemed improbable, if not impossible, until she accomplished them—evidence of her perseverance,” says Patricia Hartge, deputy director of the NCI’s epidemiology and biostatistcs program. “Like every other scientist who works with Preetha, I recognize her sharp intellect, focus on public health, and high standards of integrity. She is justly proud of Reed, and Reed can certainly be proud of her.”

Last year, her career took another detour, this time to India. Her husband was working as an economist in the country, and she was able to secure a job in New Delhi. As the NCI’s director of South Asian programs, the move shifts her focus from “very nuts-and-bolts research, which I truly love,” to developing international research priorities and partnerships. She calls the move “a leap of faith,” noting that India is brimming with potential in cancer research.

She continues to spend about half her time on her own research, however, and says she looks forward to resuming that work full time in the future. For

Mark, an ophthalmologist, founded the Tibet Vision Project, which trains Tibetan doctors to perform surgery to restore sight to people in the region’s remotest and most impoverished hinterlands.

now she’s enjoying her latest adventure, working abroad and raising her three children, ages 2, 8, and 11.

“India forces you to grow up in many ways,” she says, “and sometimes it’s challenging, and sometimes it’s really fun.” Among the challenges she has undertaken over the past year is learning to speak Hindi (her first language is English). Taking language instruction has renewed her appreciation of the remarkable power of the organ she has spent so many years studying: “You realize that your brain is still so plastic, and you can always learn something completely new—at any age!”

An immunologist by training, Roger led R&D at biotech giant Amgen, which boasts more than 50 therapeutic molecules under development. He is now chairman of Reed’s board of trustees.

Formerly at DARPA, Michael now works on drugs that fight influenza, respiratory viruses, and HIV through a process known as random homozygous gene perturbation. march 2013 Reed magazine 27

Drinking and Thinking

Reed Psychology Professor Kris Anderson Leads Major Alcohol Study.

by Romel Hernandez

“Duh, everyone drinks alcohol.”

“Whenever I’m at parties, everyone is totally smashed.”

“I guess because most of my friends drink, I want to drink, too.”

A half-dozen Reedies are in a campus lab pretending to be high schoolers. The mock session is part of training for a teen alcohol intervention program called Project Options, spearheaded by Professor Kris Anderson [psychology 2007–], who recently won a $545,000 grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to study alcohol use among teenagers—and to determine the most effective strategies for prevention.

What distinguishes Project Options from other just-say-no-type–programs is its student-centered foundation. Rather than lecturing about the evils of alcohol and other drugs, the program involves youths in a down-to-earth, open-ended discussion about the underlying reasons they turn to intoxicants—difficult family situations, peer pressures, to celebrate, or to commiserate. The program foregoes the scared straight approach, aiming instead to develop practical skills and motivations kids need to make smart decisions about alcohol.

“When you just say no, you leave a vacuum,” Anderson says. Project Options helps them answer the question: “’So, what do I say yes to?’”

The first order of business in the very first class is debunking the myth

Both a sociologist and a statistician, Martina invented a new model of HIV transmission in sub-Saharan Africa with dramatic implications for prevention.

28 Reed magazine march 2013

that everybody drinks. National data suggest that roughly one of five high schoolers have gotten intoxicated in a given month—a much lower rate than most teenagers believe. This discrepancy is important because people who believe that most of their peers are drinking are themselves more likely to drink—a phenomenon known to social psychologists as pluralistic ignorance. Presenting teens with hard facts challenging their own opinions (normative feedback, in psych terms) gets the sessions off to a thought-provoking start.

Project Options stands out for its student-centered, not top-down approach, says Shay James, principal of Franklin High School, one of two Portland high schools where the study is taking place.

She credits Anderson and her team for “doing the legwork” and “making connections with our students and parents.”

Anderson didn’t start out as an academic. After attending Bard College at

Simon’s Rock and Drew University, where she got a taste for politics as a campus activist, she decided, she says, to “stop fighting the man and help real people.”

At first she turned her attention to education. While earning a master’s degree she taught special education in an educational collaborative serving students with learning disabilities and behavioral disorders. She earned a doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Kentucky and spent five years working with children, families, and adults.

As a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California at San Diego, she connected with her mentor, Sandra Brown, one of the nation’s top experts in adolescent substance abuse. There she honed her work as a researcher straddling the developmental and psychological aspects of substance abuse.

Anderson’s experiences at Simon’s Rock, a stalwart bastion of the liberal arts, drew her to apply for an open

Rebecca developed a spray that makes urushiol—the toxic oil in poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac—glow in ultraviolet light. Disco parties are now mandatory for backpackers.

leah nash

job at Reed. At first her research colleagues scoffed. “The people who didn’t know Reed thought I’d spend all my time teaching undergraduates and never get to the lab,” she says.

The reality of her experience has proved the doubters wrong. At Reed she has gotten passionate about teaching, even while running a robust research program that involves some of her students at Reed. “The research is integral to the teaching,” she says. “And the truth is, I have the nicest lab I’ve ever had— I’ve got windows!”

Anderson is also gathering data for her own research, studying the effectiveness of intervention strategies.

She has involved current and former Reedies as research assistants, including Genevieve Dash ’13, who is doing an independent study as a project interventionist. “I’m getting to do a lot of the hands-on work in the schools,” says Dash, who is also collecting data for her senior thesis through the project. “It is so much more than I ever expected to do with my thesis, so it’s really exciting.”

Anderson also recently was awarded a Fulbright grant to work in the Netherlands for several months next year (she will be on sabbatical) to collaborate with faculty at the University of Amsterdam on research studying how youths decide to drink or not to drink.

Her own work focuses on explicit cognition—the conscious decision-making process—and she will be working with a colleague researching implicit cognition—the subconscious process. “It’s the best of both worlds,” she says.

Project Options was initially created

by Brown in 1999 as an alcohol-intervention program in San Diego–area schools. Now, under Anderson’s stewardship, the program is being rolled out at Franklin and Lincoln high schools in

Professor Kris Anderson observes Hannah Stein ’13, Ben Morris ’15, and Mackenzie Callis ’13 playing the role of high school students in a mock intervention training session.

Portland. Before starting the sessions Anderson went into the schools to run focus groups, probing the school culture related to alcoho,l and strategizing ways to market and shape the programs in ways that are meaningful to the students.

Project Options is confidential and voluntary, so a cross section of drinkers and nondrinkers attend the small sessions during their regular school day, lured, at least at first, by the offer of free pizza. The 20-minute meetings are staffed by trained interventionists.

Over time, the students develop a support community for staying sober, gain skills to guide their choices about alcohol, and perhaps influence their own circle of friends.

Among the strategies: avoiding situations where alcohol is present, rehearsing in-the-moment excuses for passing up a drink (term paper due, big game coming up), finding alternative activities or supportive friends. While

A renowned neuroscientist, Gina introduced the theory of synaptic scaling to explain how neural circuits adapt to changes in the brain.

the program makes clear that abstention is the healthiest route to take, it’s also realistic about teen alcohol use.

Ultimately, the goal is harm reduction, such as getting kids to drink less or not to drink and drive. Getting young people to think more about the decisions they make rather than just give in to outside pressures is the key.

“The major step is getting them to generate their own ideas,” says Anderson.

“Many kids have found effective ways of abstaining in a way that fits within their social context, and what we do is provide a safe space for them to get information and learn from each other.”

GO FURTHER

See academic.reed.edu/psychology/ahrp/ Anderson, K.G., & Briggs, K. (in press). “Selfregulation and adolescent decision making about alcohol and other drug use.” Oxford Handbook of Adolescent Substance Abuse.

Anderson, K.G., Grunwald, I., Grant, A., et al (2011).

“To drink or not to drink: Motives and expectancies for use and nonuse in adolescence.” Addictive Behaviors.

A professor at UC Berkeley and UCSF, Kevan pioneered the use of kinases—special enzymes that govern cellular activity—to attack cancer cells.

Regina oversees clinical faculty at the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, where she specializes in complementary and alternative medicine, reproductive health, and research. march 2013 Reed magazine 29

Fighting Malaria on the Cheap

Silas Cook ’99 Finds New Way to Synthesize Antimalarial Drug. courtesy of indiana university

By Miles Bryan ’13

Malaria is a killer. Every year, more than one million people, mostly children, die from the disease—the equivalent of a fully loaded 747 crashing into the ocean every 3 hours and 12 minutes, day and night, without end. Another 16 million people are infected each month. As you read this sentence, one in four adults in sub-Saharan Africa cannot work due to malaria infection. The result is $40 billion dollars a year in lost productivity.

Malaria’s toll is all the more tragic because there is a highly effective treatment called artemisinin-based combination therapy. The problem is money. At $2.40 per dose, artemisinin is prohibitively expensive in many areas where malaria is endemic. What’s more, supply disruptions often prevent the drug from reaching the people who need it the most. According to the Africa Review, Tanzania is reeling from a shortage of malaria drugs; 26% of that country’s dispensaries have been out of stock for three months.

Now a research team led by Indiana State University professor Silas Cook may have figured out how to tackle both problems by finding a new way to synthesize the drug.

There are two ways to make artemisinin: harvest it from the sweet wormwood plant (Artemisia annua) or synthesize it in the lab. Harvesting it from wormwood is difficult to begin with; each plant contains only a tiny proportion

Paul probes the mystery of pluripotency (i.e. the ability of certain cells to develop into different kinds of cells) and why the machinery that controls it goes haywire in cancer from his lab at UC Davis.

30 Reed magazine march 2013

Radical insight: Silas used cascade reactions to synthesize artemisinin.

of artemisinin—between 0.001% and 0.8%.Combined with crop shortages caused by poor planning, natural disasters, and other unpredictable disruptions, this method has proven incapable of providing a consistent, cheap yield.

Lab synthesis of artemisinin has always shown more promise. But, although chemists have developed several different methods to synthesize the drug over the last 30 years, they were all too long, too complicated, and too expensive to compete with natural production. Most researchers working on malaria came to believe that there would never be a viable synthesis of artemisinin, focusing instead on developing stronger and higher-yielding strains of sweet wormwood.

Silas knew that the research suggested

An otolaryngologist with the US Department of Veterans Affairs, Erick researches the effects of aging, hearing loss, and traumatic brain injury on perception and cognition.

that synthesis was not viable, but he was undeterred nonetheless. He has been thinking outside of the box ever since his time at Reed, where he was just as fascinated by reading philosophy with C.D.C. Reeve [philosophy 1976–2001] as with taking organic chemistry with Pat McDougal [chemistry 1990–]. His major, an interdisciplinary combination of biochemistry and molecular biology, allowed him to keep his focus broad in his junior and senior years. Using this framework, Silas and his team treated the synthesis like a puzzle, where the key piece was finding a cheap, readily available ingredient that could serve as a starting point.

The traditional approach to building artemisinin relies on the use of protecting groups, a sort of molecular camouflage that shields the evolving

Half-physicist, half-biologist, Jan is a leader in the field of mechanobiology. His lab at UC Berkeley investigates how mechanical forces affect proteins, cells, and tissues, with profound implications for understanding cancer.

compound from nasty reagents during synthesis. Unfortunately, this is complicated and adds a lot of steps to the procedure. So, Silas and his group sidestepped this technique and turned instead to an innovative approach involving cascade reactions, in which different parts of a single molecule react with each other.

The big payoff was that this allowed them to start the synthesis with cyclohexanone, a nonpolar solvent that is commonly used in labwork to dissolve greasy molecules from water. While kilograms of wormwood yield only minimal amounts of artemisinin, cyclohexanone will yield the compound on a gram scale.

Best of all, cyclohexanone is a key ingre-

None of this might have happened if Reed had not had a website in 1993.

When he was a freshman in high school in rural Wisconsin, Silas took the ACT exam (the college test standard in the Midwest). He meant it as practice, but he scored exceptionally well—so well that Reed sent him a postcard suggesting that he learn more about the school.

His interest piqued, Silas checked out Reed’s web page—a relative novelty in an era when only a handful of colleges had presence on the internet. His high school was famous for its wrestlers, not for its academics, so when he graduated

The key piece of the puzzle was finding a cheap, readily available starting-point. dient in the manufacture of nylon, which means that chemical giants like BASF produce millions of tons of it per year. You can buy it on the internet for $2 a kilogram.

Using cyclohexanone as their foundation, Silas and his team developed a streamlined, five-pot synthesis, which they described last year in an article in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Their procedure is cheap, is simple, and, most importantly, can be implemented on a mass scale.

early, his counselor’s advice was limited; few of his classmates set their sights beyond the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Luckily Silas already knew where he wanted to go, thanks to Reed’s web presence.

Silas’s synthesis is not quite ready for prime time; his team is still doing some tweaking. But they expect to be seeking a partner soon. “Is this chemistry ready for supplying the world with artemisinin? No. But with some further reaction engineering, it very well could be.”

GO FURTHER

“A Concise Synthesis of (+)-Artemisinin.” Chunyin Zhu and Silas P. Cook. Journal of the American Chemical Society. 2012, 134(33), 13577-13579.

Drawn from interviews with more than 1,400 people stretching back to the early 1900s,

Comrades of the Quest

offers a rich portrayal of a band of young, iconoclastic West Coast intellectuals and the institution that nurtured them, Reed College.

“It’s a great story, brilliantly constructed and told from multiple and brief, always shifting, points of first-person view.

The story never lags.”

— Robin Cody, author of Another Way the River Has

“A compelling portrait of cultural radicals and intellectual conservatives interacting to mold the history of a fascinating educational institution whose wide influence has far outweighed its small size.”

— Carl Abbott, author of Portland in Three Centuries

Researcher Michael Makler discovered novel enzyme markers, which led to the invention of portable, inexpensive, microscopy instrumentation. With molecular physiologist Robert Piper, he developed the first cheap, simple, rapid test for drug-resistant malaria, which was fieldtested through the work of Sam Martin, top malaria investigator at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Kenya.

Hardbound. $34.95.

To order your copy, visit www.reed.edu/bookstore/comrades or call 503/777-7757.

Signal Master

Neuroscientist Larry Sherman ’86 wants to regenerate your brain.

by Geoff Koch

Irreversible. Incurable. Fatal.

Those three facts about multiple sclerosis were drilled into every doctor’s head, starting with the great French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, who in 1868 first described the sinister autoimmune disorder that targets the brain and spinal cord.

In the last 30 years, each of these certainties has begun to wobble. Patients live longer. The attacks, which result in symptoms from fatigue to blindness, can now be treated. And it is no longer preposterous to contemplate reversing the brain lesions that are the hallmark of the disease—thanks to the work of Oregon Health and Science University neuroscientist Larry Sherman ’86, who in October published his most significant scientific result yet.

The study, in the Annals of Neurology,

hints at an answer to one of the central mysteries of MS and points the way— potentially—to a mechanism for doing what doctors have tried to do for centuries: help the brain to heal itself.

Roughly 400,000 Americans and 2.5 million people worldwide suffer from MS. Although there are some nuances in its population distribution—it strikes more women than men and is more common in Caucasians of northern European origin—it doesn’t discriminate based on age, race, or class. Last fall, Ann Romney, wife of former presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, spoke openly of her struggles with the disease. Michelle Obama often speaks about the travails and courage of her father, who died in 1991 after a long and painful battle with MS. In an interview that aired in September on The Dr.

oligodenrocyte

nerve cell body

damaged myelin healthy myelin

A chemical biologist at the Broad Institute, Angela investigates—via small-molecule probes—how to disrupt the transcription factors that control cancer cells.

32 Reed magazine march 2013

Neal is a leader in the field of applied behavior analysis, focusing on how to teach people with autism better skills in social interaction, communication, and play.

Oz Show, the famously health-conscious First Lady said that thinking about her father’s condition triggers her biggest health fear—“sudden illnesses that may be genetically linked that you don’t have any control over.”

MS treatment has come a long way since Larry was a biology major at Reed.

Back then, conventional wisdom held that the brain was incapable of repairing itself. Since then, a slew of drugs and other interventions have been developed that can control the disease, at least partially, by preventing the immune system from launching attacks in the first place. Unfortunately, the drugs often have fleeting impact and horrendous side effects.

In his 2004 book Blindsided: Lifting a Life Above Illness, Richard M. Cohen, a former senior producer for CBS News and CNN, wrote about living with MS. “Dr. Frankenstein dreamed up this therapy,” Cohen says about receiving steroid injections for his condition. “Anyone who is not a mess going into the hospital for intensive steroid treatment is a maniac on departure. . . .

Steroids made me fat and crazy. My mood swings were wild.”

MS is fundamentally a disease of myelin, a tough sheath which insulates nerve cells in the brain and throughout the body. Thanks to myelin, this cell network normally hums with electrical and chemical signals that in sum comprise the experience of a healthy human being moving through the world. In MS, the cause of which is still a mystery, the body’s own immune system

A biochemist at UCSF, J.J. probes the inner structure of viral genomes to understand better their role in causing cancer.

r o n i t fa h l

The conundrum of multiple sclerosis is that the brain can—at least in theory—repair itself. Larry Sherman is trying to figure out why the healing process gets derailed.

attacks myelin. Stripped of their insulation, the nerve cells slow down or stop firing altogether. Think sugar in the gas tank and sand in the gears. The resulting symptoms can be devastating: blindness, hearing loss, loss of balance, weakness, memory loss, and cognitive impairment.

On an MRI scan, demyelination shows up as malevolent lesions on the brain, not unlike dead patches of coral on a reef that should be teeming with life.

The conundrum of MS is that—at least in theory—the brain can deploy

Kristie studies the metabolic adaptation of bacterial pathogens at the University of British Columbia.

a counterweapon. In recent years, scientists have learned that when lesions start occurring, the brain cranks up production of oligodendrocytes, cells that build new myelin. Eventually, however, something shuts down this production line, which, if left to run at full steam, might reverse the course of the disease.

Larry’s research suggests the culprit flipping the stop switch is an enzyme known as PH20, which happens to be produced by the same cells that trigger creation of new oligodendrocytes.

In other words, when it comes to MS, the seeds of salvation and suffering are bound up together. It turns out that PH20 breaks apart a certain largish sugar molecule, hyaluronic acid, that builds up at the lesions and is thought to be part of the body’s anti-inflammatory response. The smaller, broken-up remnants of what used to be hyaluronic acid are what seem to gum up the works.

The situation is sort of like a fire department sending trucks to fight a fire in a skyscraper (an MS attack causes

UCSF postdoc Nancy Van Prooyen investigates how the leukemia virus hijacks T-cells, which play a critical role in the immune system.

Jonathan investigates the host factors involved in the viral RNA synthesis of influenza at the University of Alaska.

march 2013 Reed magazine 33

Signal Master demyelination). Trucks show up and douse the flames for a while (oligodendrocytes build new myelin). But the trucks’ noisy sirens and flashing lights cause such panic that people flee haphazardly into the streets around the building, preventing new trucks from arriving (the PH20 enzyme breaks up hyaluronic acid, and the resulting bits of brain chemistry prevent new oligodendrocytes from forming).

This research suggests that if a drug could be developed to target PH20— to shut off the siren and lights, as it

transient male infertility.

“I think most people would be okay with that; women certainly will be,” he says wryly. “And men probably will be, too. They’d rather have their myelin back than worry about reproducing.”

“We’re very early on and any treatment realistically is many years away,” says Bruce Bebo, associate vice president of discovery research for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. “But Dr. Sherman’s recent finding is a milestone.

He and his colleagues have identified a specific target for drug treatment that

“ Dr. Sherman’s recent finding is a milestone.”

—Bruce Bebo, National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

were—then the restorative process of resheathing nerve cells in protective myelin might proceed unabated.

Based on earlier studies, some MS researchers had concluded the most promising approach might be a drug that silences PH20 and a whole family of related enzymes. But this broadbrush approach was problematic since these other enzymes are key to healthy joints and even to proper functioning of the heart.

“The side effects would probably be much worse than MS,” Larry says.

By contrast, PH20 plays a significant role in only one other area of the body, one that’s only important in certain contexts—sperm cells. This means one side effect of a drug aimed solely at PH20 might be what Sherman calls

Mike looks at the mechanisms of neurotransmission and how they malfunction in seizures, schizophrenia, and autism at the Weill Cornell Medical College.

34 Reed magazine march 2013

might eventually lead to an ability to repair damage to myelin. There’s hope.”

Larry’s skills go far beyond science.

He is a talented piano player and a natural on stage. His talks on the effects of music and love in the brain have attracted international attention and have made him something of a star in the OMSI Science Pub series, which sends local scientists out into Portland’s vibrant bar scene to give informal talks.

As part of the series, he appears a couple times each year at the Bagdad Theater on Hawthorne Boulevard, which is routinely sold out when he performs.

This ability to bridge science and the arts was honed at Reed, where he paired his longstanding fascination with

A researcher at the University of Washington, Anna investigates how HIV hoodwinks host proteins to chaperone its own replication.

biology with classes in theatre. His scientific aptitude was apparent growing up in San Diego where, yes, he did win his middle school science fair. (No big deal, he says—he just plugged in all the relevant information from the severalthousand-page Merck diagnostic manual and built a database that could predict whether a given set of symptoms might add up to chronic lung disease.)

He assumed he would be headed to a big research university, like Berkeley or Cornell. Then a high school math teacher mentioned that her son, a Reedie, had done a thesis on medieval garbage.

“I thought, ‘That sounds really cool,’ and I started to look into Reed more and more,” he says. “I found out they had this fantastic biology program and an opportunity to do research for students during their entire time on campus, but they also had this great emphasis on humanities.”

Naming professors he remembers, Sherman lists faculty from science and the humanities in roughly equal numbers. He talks of a lifelong bond with thesis adviser Larry Ruben [biology 1955–92], who’s closing down his lab in May after a career at Reed that started in the 1950s. Maryanne McClellan [biology 1981–] and Steve Arch [biology 1972–2012] were “amazing mentors.” But don’t leave out John Kenney [religion 1980–95], who taught the iconic Hum 110 when Sherman was a freshman: “He taught me how to write.” And Craig Clinton [theatre 1978–2010]: “I learned so much more than theatre from him.”

He learned from his fellow Reedies,

David is researching the evolution of the dengue virus and other RNA viruses as a population biologist at Duke.

too, even after graduation. In the late 1980s, while earning his PhD at OHSU, he teamed up with several alumni to put on shows as part of Portland-area theatre troupe, Oracle Theatre. Several of his fellow performers went on to success in the entertainment industry, including Mark Worthington ’83, who later worked as a production designer on the television series Ugly Betty, and playwright and novelist Gordon Dahlquist ’83, perhaps best known for his 2006 book, The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters.

Collaboration with these creative heavyweights helps explain how Larry got his start as a sort of vaudevillian scientist, a genre that’s unique even

by Portland’s quirky standards. It all started a few years ago when he was playing piano at a department party.

A colleague, who didn’t know of his talents, approached with a question.

Would Larry be willing to give a talk on music and the brain for a local philanthropic group?

Drawing on his theatre training at Reed, Larry put together a show quoting everyone from great neuroscientists to Mel Brooks, and also displaying his own prodigious piano skills. (He has been playing since he was four and, to the chagrin of any music student who has ever struggled through hours of rote practice just to play a passable version of “Für Elise,” can hear a song a few times and then generally play it by ear.)

The talk was an immediate hit and word quickly spread through both the science and music communities. Larry has since given popular lectures on the

Melissa is investigating combination antiretroviral therapies for HIV at Johns Hopkins.

neuroscience of music, love, and creativity at least 50 times in the last few years, in venues ranging from elementary schools and senior centers to Severance Hall in Cleveland. In 2009, he collaborated with vocalist Valerie Day (former lead singer of the ’80s band Nu Shooz) for a show called “Brain Chemistry for Lovers,” which nearly sold out Portland’s 800seat Newmark Theatre. The Oregonian described it as “science lecture as cabaret,” adding that “the show’s great strength might be how its microscopic perspective on emotions shows us just why these particular expressions of love’s joys and travails have endured.”

Larry, who’s not hard to find on YouTube, obviously has fun in front of a crowd. But mainly he takes to the stage to make the case for neuroscience to nonscientists.

“I have a huge concern that we in this country are abandoning science,” he says, adding that when he was an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati in the late 1990s, the NIH funded about the top quarter of all grant proposals.

Now it’s just the top 7%. “I feel like it’s my duty to go out and get the public engaged in this.”

At the moment, he’s preparing for another show on nature versus nurture.

Larry, as it happens, was adopted as a child. Never one to shy away from risks as a performer, he will take to the stage at the Newmark Theatre in May and reveal what he’s learned in his efforts to track down his birth parents and biological siblings—along with illustrations and graphics from an accomplished artist, a live orchestra, singing

by Day, and original music composed

by Day’s husband, John Smith, inspired by a DNA sequence.

In the meantime, there is more work to be done in his lab. Drug development is a tortuous process fraught with more failure than success. Any compounds that show promise will have to be tested on mice and macaques before human trials can begin.

When his research hits a brick wall, Larry turns to a piano and plays the blues—improvising sometimes in a major key, sometimes in a minor key, but always building towards a cadence that rings true.

Geoff Koch works at a software company in the Portland area, is a father to two faultless daughters, and obsessively reads the poetry and fiction of Jim Harrison.

Jeannette is studying how organisms sense the presence of pathogenic bacteria at UC Berkeley.

My Linh works on obesity and feeding regulation at Oregon Health and Science University.

march 2013 Reed magazine 35

Reediana Books, etc.

Playing at the World: A History of Simulating Wars, People and Fantastic Adventures from Chess to Role-Playing Games Jon Peterson ’93 (Unreason Press, 2012) If you ever whiled away a beautiful afternoon populating dungeons with orcs, beholders, gold, hidden passages, trapdoors, paladins, thieves, and taverns where players could find a quest or a fistfight (perhaps both!), this history of roleplaying games (RPGs) is a gem. A big one.

Through years of painstaking research, Jon has traced a path from ancient chess variants to bygone German war games to

Ghostman Roger Hobbs ’11

of games—have been staples of both tabletop and computer-based games for decades.

D&D changed the way people play and had a huge impact on the media through video games and movies made from video games (well, maybe not that DOOM movie).

One of the book’s advantages is that Jon had access to major principals such as Gygax and D&D cocreator Dave Arneson, who have since died. The sheer density of this volume— it weighs in at 722 pages—may spook some readers, but its near-microscopic view of events is likely to make it the most comprehensive work on this area of game development for a long time. —Darrel Plant ’90

(Knopf, 2013)

leah nash

A gripping suspense novel packed with bank heists, shooting sprees, and criminal depravity, Ghostman seems more like the work of a grizzled FBI veteran than the first novel of a freshly minted Reed grad. But Roger’s story of a charismatic master of disguise, occasionally known as Jack Delton, quickly defies expectations. When he’s not pulling off insanely intricate schemes, Delton translates ancient manuscripts.

“Some kids collect model planes. I read Latin,” he tells a fellow grifter, speaking of his love for the Aeneid and his admiration for Aeneas’ willingness to put the ends above the means. “I felt like I didn’t exist, except when I read that book. The only other time I felt more alive was the day I first bashed a man’s head in and robbed him in broad daylight.”

“Fletere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo,” he tells his doomed companion.

“It means, ‘If you can’t reach heaven, raise hell.’”

The plot involves an armored car robbery gone gruesomely awry in Atlantic 36 Reed magazine march 2013

obscure zines of the ’50s and ’60s whose readers played with “toy” ships on the floor.

The trail finally meanders to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where a wargame enthusiast named Gary Gygax—one of the first people to introduce fantastic elements into medieval combat games and to codify rules where players took on the role of a single fighter rather than an army or fleet—turned a badly illustrated booklet into a game empire known as Dungeons & Dragons.

Thanks to D&D, the concept of individual characters with unique abilities who evolve over multiple sessions—basic elements of RPGs not found in previous types

Novelist Roger Hobbs ’11 mesmerized Reed students in Capehart room last month.

City. Delton is called in to “fix” it by an elusive character he owes a big favor to. He flies from his home base in Seattle to try to set things right before the millions literally explode. Meanwhile, the narrative flashes back to a misbegotten heist in Kuala Lumpur that left him deep in debt.

Ghostman is a page-turner. Yet there’s an interesting subtext about the search for

identity. What makes us who we are? What happens if you change your appearance?

What are you willing to do to get ahead?

Where do you draw the line between justifiable and evil? Roger lets these questions dangle and float, raising Ghostman well above the typical thriller. You’ll be looking forward to the sequel before you’ve reached the last page.

—Audrey Van Buskirk

Holding Silvan: A Brief Life

The Light in Her Eyes

Monica Wesolowska ’89

Produced and directed by Laura Nix ’89 with Julia Meltzer

(Hawthorne Books & Literary Arts, 2013)

(Clockshop Media)

—Lena M. Lencek [Russian 1977–] Lena was Monica’s adviser for her senior thesis, And Then She Said Stories.

Clockshop media

Holding Silvan grabs you by the heart and won’t let go. It’s not just the subject matter: the author’s brutally introspective log of her passage into a motherhood that pitches her into a vortex of moral decisions. It’s also the tact and generosity with which she tells the life story of a cherished infant boy and the struggles of his parents, extended family, and community of friends, nurses, and physicians, to come to terms with the unthinkable. At issue is the question: how to decide for one who is constitutionally incapable of deciding whether to let him live or die?

This memoir (which includes an introduction by Erica Jong ) retains the urgency of the diary on which she draws for her account, but—and here is its brilliance— takes its argument from the Book of Job, its str ucture from ancient Christian martyrology, and its philosophical problem from Dostoevsky. The birth of a child doomed to die becomes a test of faith, of character, and of the limits of love. Monica’s luminous, laconic prose, with its relentless staccato of short sentences, creates a surface tension of restraint over a turbulence of emotions—terror, anger, despair, grief, tenderness, and joy—that explode in sporadic notations of the author’s anguish and hope. With impeccable aesthetic judgment, the author charts the stages of a wrenching ethical journey that ends in a resounding affirmation of the ultimate fairness of life.

Houda (center) praying with her students at Al-Zahra Mosque, Damascus, from The Light in Her Eyes.

This compelling documentary tells the story of a conservative Muslim preacher and the girls’ school she founded in Damascus, shot just before Syria’s brutal civil war erupted in the summer of 2011.

The film follows Houda al-Habash, an academic, mother, and wife, who runs a summer school for young girls at a mosque in Damascus. Bustling about in her black hajib and polyester coat, Houda brings to mind a novelty shop, wind-up nun, all but spitting sparks as she exhorts her charges to memorize the Koran by rote. But we see her tenderness as well as her drive.

Ultimately she insists that the girls stick up for their rights in a secular, sexist society.

The documentary premiered in Amsterdam at the International Documentary Film Festival in 2011 and is now available for streaming on PBS’s POV website.

As a history major at Reed, Laura wrote her thesis (under adviser Julia Liss [history 1987–89]) on domestic architecture and the rise of the single family home. She credits the discipline and rigor of her Reed education for the critical thinking that informs her work.

“As a documentary maker you’re not a journalist,” she explains. “You’re expected to have an opinion. You’re giving your experience of what you saw and heard. My training at Reed helped me look at a variety of sources, dig a little deeper and frame those sources.”

Laura is currently producing The Yes Men Are Revolting, her follow-up to the festival hit The Yes Men Fix the World, both of which star media hacker/performance artist Igor Vamos ’90. — Joseph Gallivan

march 2013 Reed magazine 37

Reediana Trompe l’Oeil: To Fool the Eye,

by Caroline Miller ’59, MAT ’65 (Koho Pono, 2012).

Caroline’s third book is a tale of suspense set in France during the French-Algerian War and centering on Mills College graduate Rachel Farraday. Rachel is hired to write a history of Château l’Ombre, a grand but decaying mansion. When her employer dies and leaves part of the estate to Rachel, the chateau’s shadowy past comes into focus. Is what Rachel uncovers real or a trick of the eye? Mystery and death lie underfoot, and tension builds to a jawdropping conclusion thanks to Caroline’s firstrate storytelling and sparkling prose.

Roberto Chavez, Paintings and Drawings, by Robert Ross ’61 (hit-&-run press, 2012). This book grew out of an exhibition of Chavez’s work that Robert curated at Santa Rosa Junior College. Robert’s introduction includes Chavez’s descriptions of his background, his perspective on art, and a biographical timeline. (See www.mrbebop.com.) (See Class Notes.)

All the Wrong Places: Mrs. Frog’s Improbable Search for Love, by Pam Glenn ’67 (Class Action Ink, 2012). Can a big, big-mouthed amphibian find love while maintaining her spirit and figure? This ribbeting tale follows the move of the bossy but bereft Mrs. Frog to a new marsh. (See Class Notes.)

Hotel Murano: The Collection, by Matthew Kangas ’71 (2012). Matthew has documented the museum-quality art collection, which includes an extensive portion of glass art, found at the boutique Hotel Murano in Tacoma, Washington. He also contributed an essay to Tactile Desires: The Work of Jack Sures (Mackenzie Art Gallery, Tom Thomson Art Gallery, 2012), which provides an overview of Sures’ work and is replete with full color images from the Canadian exhibition. (See Class Notes.)

White Vespa, by Kevin Oderman ’72 (Etruscan Press, 2012). An American expatriate in Greece, seeking to quell his grief for his son by photographing the Dodecanese Islands, discovers friendship and love and a consequential resurgence of life. Written in language “as clear and beautiful as the Aegean Sea,” Kevin’s story examines the complexity individuals face within the intersection of the past and the present. (See Class Notes.)

38 Reed magazine december 2012

The Group Shoe, 1962, from Roberto Chavez, Paintings and Drawings, by Robert Ross ’61

Gender and the Dysfunctional Workplace, by Suzy Fox ’73 (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012). Suzy served as coeditor and contributor to this book, which examines workplace issues and how they affect women and men differently.

Writers from a broad spectrum of disciplines examine counterproductive work behavior, including aggression, bullying, incivility, sexual harassment, sexual orientation harassment, absenteeism, and the effects of job stress on mental health and well being, with an overriding goal to contribute to healthier workplaces for everyone. Their approaches vary, but the overall result is “a dynamic and pioneering appraisal of the field and innovative musings on its future.”

Depression: A Public Feeling, by Ann Cvetkovich ’80 (Duke University Press, 2012). In her latest publication, Ann combines memoir and critical essay in search of ways of writing about depression as a cultural and political phenomenon that also offer alternatives to medical models. She describes her own experience with professional pressures, creative anxiety, and political hopelessness, which blocked her intellectually while she worked to complete her dissertation and to write her first book. Building on the insights of the memoir, she considers the idea that feeling bad constitutes the lived experience of neoliberal capitalism.

Summer and Bird, by Katherine Catmull ’81 (Dutton Children’s Books, 2012). When their parents disappear in the middle of the night, young sisters Summer and Bird set off on a quest to find them. A cryptic picture message from their mother leads them to a familiar gate in the woods which transports them into a new world entirely—one inhabited by talking birds and the evil Puppeteer queen. Katherine’s book, written for late middle grade students, has been called a “stunning debut.” (See Class Notes.)

Steve Lindsay ’81 wrote “How I Got Started,” in Applied Cognitive Psychology (May/June 2012). His essay recalls the influence of classmates Tim Cross ’81 and Colleen Kelley ’75 and the positive push he received from his teacher and mentor, Carol Creedon [psychology 1957–91]. Steve is a professor of psychology at the University of Victoria, and his research explores the relationship between memory, current performance, and conscious experience.

Why Are You Atheists So Angry?

99 Things That Piss Off the Godless, by Greta Christina ’83 (Pitchstone Publishing, 2012). Greta is the first to say it—she’s an atheist and she’s mad as hell. In this fast-paced, provocative manifesto, she explains why

she (and many other atheists) are full of fury.

With chapter titles such as “The Litany of Rage,” “The Santa Delusion,” and “Yes, This Means You, New Age Religion,” Greta’s punchy style and knack for a catchphrase provide a compelling look at atheism in the 21st century. Greta is a writer and blogger who lives in San Francisco with her wife, Ingrid.

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Browse online!

Fields and Streams: Stream Restoration, Neoliberalism, and the Future of Environmental Science, by Rebecca Lave ’93 (University of Georgia Press, 2012). Heralded as a “brilliant and pathbreaking work,” Rebecca’s book examines the science of stream restoration and the issue of the privatization and commercialization of knowledge that has fundamentally changed the way that science is funded, organized, and viewed in the United States. She looks at the success of Dave Rosgen, a private consultant who is widely respected as an expert in the field though he has relatively little formal scientific training. Decried by academic and federal agency–based scientists, Rosgen’s methods are promoted by federal agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, as well as by resource agencies in dozens of states. Drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, Rebecca demonstrates that the primary cause of Rosgen’s success is neither the method nor the man but is instead the assignment of a new legitimacy to scientific claims developed outside the academy, concurrent with academic scientists’ decreasing ability to defend their turf. What is at stake in the Rosgen wars, she argues, is not just the ecological health of our rivers and streams but the very future of environmental science.

Rebecca is an assistant professor and director of undergraduate studies in the geography department at Indiana University.

I am Proud of my Family, Estoy Orgulloso de mi Familia, Iyi Cusiji’ini Shi’in Na Ta’in: My Family Feeds California,

by George Feldman ’95 (CreateSpace, 2012). George initiated the publication of this book and also served as coauthor. Text is presented in English, Spanish, and Mixteco, and George has found that the book’s publication has led to conversations between people working with Mixteco immigrants throughout California.

(See Class Notes.)

Visit bookstore.reed.edu to order Reed goodies, gifts, and books by Reedies and other venerable authors.

REED COLLEGE BOOKSTORE bookstore.reed.edu • Jules Wright • 503/777-7757 • wrightj@reed.edu

In Memoriam The Lion

John D. Gray [trustee 1961–2006; emeritus trustee 2006–12] October 19, 2012, from cancer.

He was one of Oregon’s preeminent entrepreneurs, a decorated military hero, developer, and philanthropist who left an indelible mark on many charitable organizations—perhaps none so profoundly as Reed, which he helped to rescue from the brink of insolvency in the 1970s.

Gray was renowned for his business acumen, but those who knew him were also struck by his immense generosity.

“John Gray was such a huge figure in Oregon business and public life that it was pretty hard to be involved in politics, public policy, and the like without getting to know him,” says Stephen McCarthy ’66 [trustee 1988–2009], proprietor of Oregon’s Clear Creek Distillery.

“He was everywhere, working on all kinds of good causes: libraries, music, schools. He was a visionary.”

Gray was born in 1919, the eldest of three sons of rancher Elmer Gray and his wife, Mabel, of Ontario, Oregon. Elmer died when John was in the first grade and the family moved to the small town of Monroe, between Corvallis and Eugene in the Willamette Valley. Mabel taught in a one-room, rural school and encouraged her boys to read, work hard, and be honest.

The three Gray boys made money hauling hay, feeding pigs, and milking cows for neighboring farmers who became their surrogate fathers.

“When the smelt ran in the Sandy River each spring, a couple of neighbors would load a bathtub up in a truck, drive up to the mouth of the river, fill the tub with netted fish, and drive it back down the mountain to Monroe,” says Gray’s daughter, Joan. “Each family would gather around the truck and fill their crocks with alternating layers of salt and fish. So all through the winter the salted fish would be rinsed, soaked, and fried up for dinners.”

“We were poor and didn’t know it, and so was everybody else,” Gray recalled in an oral history recorded in 2007 by Michael O’Rourke ’66.

In 1936 Gray graduated from Monroe High School, where he had edited the school newspaper, and attended Oregon State College on a scholarship. He claimed to have chosen secretarial science as his major because during registration it had the shortest line. In any case, the discipline (which offered instruction in business, law, and accounting, in addition to secretarial skills) prepared him for his first job out of college as a cost accountant.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Gray served five years in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, earning the rank of lieutenant colonel and a Bronze Star. Listening to soldiers talk about the businesses they’d run before the war, Gray decided to take advantage of the GI Bill and get an MBA when the war ended.

Before heading off to the Harvard School of Business, he married Elizabeth “Betty” Neuner,

the daughter of Oregon’s attorney general.

They’d met during his senior year at Oregon State and corresponded throughout the war.

Together they formed a dynamic partnership, with Betty’s generosity and charm balancing John’s understated reserve.

After Boston, the Grays returned to Oregon and he was invited to join a fledgling company called Oregon Saw Chain, whose Cox Chipper march 2013 Reed magazine 51

In Memoriam Chain had revolutionized the industry by introducing lightweight, high-speed, directdrive chain saws. The business was a roughhewn start-up—Gray used an upturned nail keg for his first office chair—but thrived under his leadership. By the time he stepped down in 1985 as CEO of the company (renamed Omark Industries), it employed 4,000 people worldwide.

“There wasn’t an ounce of tycoon in John, even though he was the apotheosis of the successful Oregon businessman,” says Gerald Bidwell [trustee 1985–2006]. “He didn’t have any, what I would call, star power. There was no look at me feature about him that all of a sudden drew him into your field of view. I came to admire the style with which he did things and his understated way of dealing with people and issues. He was modest, but people found what he said compelling.”

Building the future

The process of building things fascinated Gray. In the ’60s, he combined his business acumen with an abiding respect for the natural landscape to build pioneering resorts that combined homesites, lodging, restaurants, golf courses, spas, and shops. He was partial to the functionality and clean simplicity of midcentury Scandinavian design, which integrated structure with nature. This aesthetic informed both Salishan, a project sited near Gleneden Beach between the Pacific Ocean and Siletz Bay, and Sunriver, a 5,000-acre resort community 15 miles south of Bend.

“He did not tolerate cleverness or artifice,” says designer Carol Edelman, who worked with Gray for years, beginning with the Water Tower at John’s Landing. “The natural world was his touchstone.”

“In each of his developments he went into areas where it hadn’t occurred to anyone else that there might be opportunity,” says Bidwell.

“He was there early and substantially.”

An early proponent of land-use planning, Gray believed it was possible to plan for growth and build successful developments. His signature projects include the Irving Street Lofts in Portland and Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, Washington. He transformed a blighted, industrial area between Southwest Macadam Avenue and the Willamette River, known as John’s Landing, into a mixed-use community of offices, housing, and retail.

But even more lasting than his developments were his philanthropic endeavors, which always built on the future.

“No one will ever know the extent to which the Grays gave,” says Nancy Bragdon [presidential spouse 1971–88]. “Very often the publicity given to their giving was at the behest of the institution, which wanted not just the money 52 Reed magazine march 2013

but for people to know who gave it.”

The list of institutions, individuals, and causes that Gray supported is long and diverse: everything from affordable housing and promoting leadership among young Latinos to the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University, Habitat for Humanity, and the Portland Japanese Garden.

“John came from a family where hard work was first and foremost,” says trustee Daniel Greenberg ’62. “He applied that kind of rigor and strength to the way in which he thought about and acted on ideas relating to philanthropy. Even though he was so successful as an entrepreneur, I think it was philanthropy and affection for their family which defined John and Betty.”

From a young age, Gray was taught that you did what you could, shared what you had, and took what you needed, says his daughter, Joan.

Giving and getting were equal parts of life.

Laura Winter, vice president of the Oregon Community Foundation, worked with Gray for the last 23 years. She characterized him as an informed, committed, and determined philanthropist, who was always willing to take a risk on an unknown project or idea.

“John used philanthropy as a tool for mentoring and as a way to exercise his business expertise,” she says. “He liked to lead the charge to encourage others to give. Matching and challenge grants were a real sweet spot for him.”

Saving Reed

In the early ’60s, Richard Sullivan [president 1956–67] began inviting local entrepreneurs, including Gray, to serve on Reed’s board of trustees, in part to shore up the college’s precarious finances.

In those days the Portland business community tended to dismiss Reed as a hotbed of socialism, says Colin Diver [president 2002–12]. “But even at that time, or maybe especially at that time, it was also a place of extraordinary academic excellence, brilliance, and distinctiveness, and there’s no question that John saw that right away. The sheer fact that John Gray had adopted Reed College was enormously valuable to the college and gave it a kind of legitimacy that it really needed.”

If finances looked gloomy in the ’60s, they were downright dismal by 1971 when Paul Bragdon became president. By the time internal institutional loans were charged off, the endowment had dwindled to $4 million, and years of threadbare budgets were beginning to bite.

“The college had some bank debt and other problems that were threatening its future,” says Bidwell. “Howard Vollum ’36 [trustee 1955–79] and John Gray were instrumental in gathering together folks who shared a view that Reed had a purpose and a future.”

When Daniel Greenberg ’62 joined the board of trustees in 1975, he was “stunned” at how difficult the college’s financial circumstances had become.

“Howard Vollum and John Gray kept Reed solvent and healthy during a time it was near to going under,” he says. “Working in tandem, they put Reed on firmer footing and allowed Paul to carry out his mandate. They made it their mission to help the school survive and prosper.”

Together with Richard Wollenberg [trustee 1962–2005], Ed Cooley [trustee 1968–2000], and Walter Mintz ’50 [trustee 1971–2004], Gray again rode to the rescue in the ’80s and early ’90s when private liberal arts colleges were being threatened by special colleges built by state universities.

“These special colleges looked and smelled like us,” says Steven Koblik [president 1992– 2001], “but were publicly funded. John believed it was extraordinarily important for the Pacific Northwest, Oregon, and Portland to have an institution of Reed’s quality. He was a board member that any institution in the country would have killed to have.”

In addition being a good judge of people and what you could expect from them, Gray was wise about the way organizations function, with the capacity for helping others to see the totality of the enterprise.

Gray stepped down from the board in 2006, having served Reed for 45 years. From 1967 to 1982 he served as chair of the board; he also chaired the college’s first comprehensive fundraising campaign, completed in 1988, which raised $60 million. Over the years, he and Betty gave more than $25 million to the college, designating a wide variety of uses including environmental studies, financial aid, canyon restoration, the Annual Fund, and, of course, the Gray Fund.

“John had an absolute integrity, steadiness, and a kind of wisdom about just everything that’s important in the governance of an institution,” Diver says. “He endorsed Reed because he saw it as a civic treasure that had to be supported, because he cared about civic treasures and he cared about building public goodness. John supported so many institutions and he didn’t just hand them a pile of cash. He really made a difference.”

On December 2, a memorial tribute was held at Kaul Auditorium, hosted by the college and Gray’s four living children, Jack Gray, Joan Gray, Janet Webster, and Laurie Gearhart. Many grandchildren and great-grandchildren also succeed John. His daughter Anne Walrod ’71 died in 1994 and his wife, Betty, in 2003.

During the memorial Tony Arnerich, Gray’s financial adviser, said, “His mandate to me was simple: ‘Grow our assets so we can give more away.’ And boy, did he give it away.”

—Randall S. Barton

The Experimental Polymath

Perfectly scientific. Professor Richard Crandall ’69 knew how to cut through a tangle of equations to the root of the problem.

Professor Richard E. Crandall ’69 [physics 1978–2012] Portland, December 20, 2012, from complications of acute myeloid leukemia.

Richard Crandall defied categories. He was a professor, a physicist, a computer scientist, and an inventor, but none of these labels conveys the scope or the depth of his intellectual accomplishments. From the rings of Saturn to the hunt for prime numbers to the circuitry of the iPhone, there was no limit to his curiosity—or to his appetite for discovery. He held 11 patents, authored 6 books, and wrote scores of scholarly articles on a vast range of subjects, but his signal achievements probably lay in experimental mathematics—an emerging field he helped to define.

“Richard’s mind operated at a level beyond the ordinary,” says his former colleague Nicholas Wheeler ’55 [physics 1963–2010].

“He sparkled with swift, reckless, eccentric ideas of every kind.”

Richard was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and grew up in Los Angeles. Part Cherokee, he was proud of his Native heritage. His formidable intellect became apparent at an early age; he

read Time magazine to his kindergarten classmates during mat time and taught himself calculus at the age of 11. He spent two years at Caltech, attending lectures by Richard Feynman, before coming to Reed in 1967. He loved Reed and often talked of his student days as the most glorious time of his life. He majored in physics and wrote a thesis on some physical manifestations of randomness with Wheeler. In April of his senior year, he made a terrible confession—he had lost his thesis draft at the Lutz Tavern. “He wasn’t terribly concerned,” Wheeler remembers. Always a fast worker, Richard simply rewrote his thesis from scratch and graduated on time. After passing his orals, he revealed that he had also (unbeknownst to anyone) written a second thesis in math, which was approved

by John Leadley [mathematics 1956–93].

After Reed, Richard went to MIT, where he worked with the theoretical physicist Victor Weisskopf, renowned for his ability to construct back-of-the-envelope estimates based on deft

physical insight. From time to time Richard would return to Reed (by train—he hated flying) to recharge his batteries. “We’d work day and night for a couple of weeks on some problem,” Wheeler says. “Then he’d walk me home and we’d stand under a streetlight talking physics until 2 a.m.” After earning his PhD in theoretical physics from MIT in 1973, Richard designed fire safety and energy control systems for skyscrapers. He was interviewed in People magazine after the blockbuster Towering Inferno about the safety of modern high-rise buildings; the accompanying photograph showed him in elegant pinstripe suit, vest, and untied tennis shoes.

In 1978, Richard returned to Reed in the physics department as visiting experimentalist. He was skilled at constructing fundamental experiments on a shoestring budget (one of his favorite tricks involved demonstrating the Doppler shift in visible light using a couple of old stereo speakers). “Richard was brilliant, intimidating, infectious, and very generous,” march 2013 Reed magazine 53

In Memoriam wrote Berkeley physicist Ed Wishnow ’80. “He was a very big influence on me and he introduced me to the fun of experimental physics.

We also spent quite a few nights with lasers and mirrors (‘borrowing’ them from the bathroom) in the physics building hallway trying to measure the speed of light.”

Another project involved teaching students to design and build a system to transmit computer data from the physics lab to Eliot Hall by means of a laser beam. “It was late one night the first time we succeeded in modulating an ASCII bit stream onto the laser, transmitting it from one end to the other of the second floor hallway of the physics building, focusing it, detecting it, demodulating it, and playing it back on a monitor,” wrote Chris Ruf ’82, now director of the Space Physics Research Laboratory at the University of Michigan. “I remember that Richard giggled when it started to work.

A couple of months later, the link was installed between physics and Eliot Hall.” The link was an integral part of Reed’s computer network for many years, although intrepid physics majors periodically had to clip branches from the cherry trees in Eliot Circle lest they interfere with the signal.

Richard’s abiding interest in music prompted him to build a series of amplifiers, effects boxes, and instruments, including an innovative (but heavy) keyboard synthesizer, dubbed the Albatross, that hung from his neck on a leather strap. He played guitar in several Reed bands, including Central Nervous System and the Chameleons. “I’m glad that, back then, we weren’t ashamed of our musical naivety, because our youth, our unbridled optimism, and our drive to have rollicking good fun made for a special time in our lives,” wrote band mate (now attorney) Connie Crooker ’69.

Around the same time, Richard was pursuing a line of thought that would ultimately shape his career: experimental mathematics. Like many physicists, he used computers to explore scientific problems. He wrote software to demonstrate how the gravitational force of Saturn’s moons produced the Cassini Division between its rings; to simulate logic circuits; to play billiards, chess, and poker. (Bonus feature: the program could bluff.) But Richard went further. Dissatisfied with the limitations of existing computer languages, he invented two of his own, Rascal and PSI. He possessed an uncanny ability to write algorithms to solve problems that arose in physics but were actually mathematical in nature.

Richard was a leading expert on prime numbers—numbers that cannot be produced by multiplying smaller numbers together; examples are 3, 17, 19, 61, 67, and so on. There are an infinite number of primes, but proceeding towards infinity they become harder and harder 54 Reed magazine march 2013

to find. Working with such gargantuan numbers, consisting of hundreds of thousands of digits, poses a monumental challenge. Standard computer software is simply not designed to handle numbers of this magnitude; even elementary operations such as addition and multiplication overflow conventional processors.

Thanks to his musical knowledge, Richard had a thoroughgoing command of signal analysis, the science of teasing out meaningful infor-

Crandall arm-in-arm with Steve Jobs ’76 at convocation in 1991, when Jobs was honored with the Vollum Award.

mation from a vast quantity of data, such as identifying the crash of a hi-hat in a ZZ Top recording. He soon realized that an enormous number could be treated as a sort of signal, and that the techniques he invented to identify a cymbal in a rock tune could also be used to find factors in a colossal number. Armed with this insight, he wrote a trailblazing series of algorithms to search for primes; several dozen of the largest known primes were discovered using his methods. (These results have far-reaching significance because they can be used to create virtually unbreakable codes.)

In 1982, Richard struck up a random conversation in the coffee shop with an alumnus who was talking about computers; this turned out to be Steve Jobs ’76. The two developed a long and productive working relationship. Over the years Richard held several positions at Apple, serving as chief cryptographer, distinguished scientist, and head of the Advanced Computation Group. His algorithms were employed in many of Steve’s legendary projects, including the Macintosh, the NeXT, Toy Story, and the iPhone. He organized Steve’s bachelor party in 1991, and, later that year, presented him with the Vollum Award at Reed’s convocation.

Richard pioneered the use of desktop computers at Reed. He founded the D-LAB, located in the physics building, in which students wrote software such as GriffinTerm, GriffinText, RASCAL, SuperChroma, and Modern Artist. He was especially keen on the use of computers in the liberal arts and a fervent advocate that

computing could be a powerful tool for any discipline. “Richard just had this creative energy that couldn’t be suppressed,” says Marianne Colgrove ’84, who worked in the D-LAB. “He was full of inventive ideas and refused to be bound by any single discipline.”

Richard married Tess Day in 1996 in the Eliot Hall chapel; Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve’s wife, served as “best man.” Their daughter, Ellen, was born the following year.

In the ’90s, Richard took an early retirement from full-time teaching to found and direct the Reed Center for Advanced Computation, where he employed many Reed students in various projects. In 1999, ending 200 years of speculation, the Reed team proved that the 24th Fermat number, a numeric behemoth consisting of five million digits, was not prime.

Richard continued to teach courses at Reed in scientific computation, work for Apple, write algorithms for his consulting firm, Perfectly Scientific, Inc., and pursue research, publishing scores of papers on subjects as varied as the geometry of the brain and the epidemio-logy of influenza. He set up a publishing company, PSIPress, whose catalogue includes books by Marvin Levich [philosophy 1953–94], Julie O’Toole ’71, and Gina Collecchia ’09. He also purchased a print shop, Impress Printing, in NE Portland.

Richard maintained his share of professorial idiosyncrasy. He played blindfold chess, loathed doctor’s offices, and once hired a friend to drive him from Portland to Chicago rather than endure a visit to the airport. He kept a small plastic Christmas tree in his home all year round to save himself the trouble of setting it up for the season. Despite his gruff exterior, he was a legendary figure in the Woodstock neighborhood, where he could often be seen toting a stack of yellow legal pads crammed with equations written in an elegant longhand.

His final project was an “intellectual biography” of Steve Jobs. He was deeply immersed in it in December, when he collapsed at home and was rushed to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. He died 10 days later, his last great work unfinished.

“Richard was always imagining what might be possible, then, in his unique way, doggedly trying to build towards it,” wrote computer scientist Stephen Wolfram, author of Mathematica.

“Around the world at any time of day or night, millions of people are using their iPhones.

And, unknown to them, somewhere inside, algorithms are running that one can imagine represent a little piece of the soul of that interesting and creative human being named Richard Crandall, now cast in the form of code.”

He is sur vived by his mother, Janice Veca; brothers Gary and Ronald; former wife, Tess; their daughter, Ellen; stepsons Forrest, Eric, and Leif; and nephew Devin Crandall.

—Chris Lydgate ’90

C o u r t e s y o f Ta m i m e n t L i b r a r y & R o b e r t F. Wa g n e r L a b o r A r c h i v e s

friends. Doreen was working for an airline in order to see New York City on her way from a nursing stint in Ohio to her home in England.

After they married, Harry and Doreen moved to New Jersey, where they lived for 40 years.

Harry worked in medical film production for the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society. They had two daughters and worked tirelessly for the rights of residents, parents, and staff of the developmental center where their younger daughter resided. Harry enjoyed bicycling, hiking, and camping, and maintained a lifelong association with the Unitarian Church.

Survivors include two daughters and a granddaughter. Doreen died in April 2012.

Isabelle Woodbridge Leggett ’38 July 2, 2012, in Stockton, California.

The daughter of Marguerite Woodbridge ’33 [French 1940–50] and Benjamin M. Woodbridge [French 1922–52], and sister of Benjamin M. Woodbridge Jr. ’36, Isabelle studied at Reed for three years before transferring to Western Washington College of Education.

She taught in schools in Everett, Washington, and in Portland. In 1943, she married Robert D. Leggett ’42. They lived in California and Pennsylvania while he completed his medical training, then moved to Marin County. Following a divorce in 1962, Isabelle returned to teaching.

A decade later, in retirement, she volunteed as an instructor in outreach programs for adults and the elderly, and as a French language instructor for middle school students. Survivors include a daughter and son.

Robert William Isensee ’41 June 25, 2012, in San Diego, California.

Harry in December 1937.

Harry W. Randall Jr. ’37 November 10, 2012, in Snowflake, Arizona.

Harry grew up in Oregon, the eldest of three children, in a family that was musically inclined; he played both piano and clarinet. In his teens, he developed an interest in radio and film and became a ham radio operator. When Harry entered Reed, fascism was spreading from Germany and Italy to Spain. At Reed he developed a political awareness and lent support to West Coast labor and lumber strikes. After a year, he quit college and joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade volunteers, arriving in Spain in July 1937. He was put in charge of the Photographic Unit of the XV International Brigade and contributed significantly to documenting the Spanish Civil War. (His Reed roommate, Bill Miller ’39, died serving with the Lincoln Brigade.) His

primary task was to take photos for the Brigade’s newsletter, Volunteer for Liberty, but he also provided photos for newspapers and did general soldiering. After volunteers withdrew from Spain, Harry returned to the U.S. with film archives in tow. He later donated the unit’s photos, approximating 1,800 images, to the Tamiment Library at New York University. Harry and his first wife, Alice, lived in Montreal, where he built a house and worked for the Canadian Film Board. He enlisted in the Canadian army during World War II and served in England making newsreels with the Film and Photo Unit. After the war, Harry and Alice relocated to New York City, where Alice’s family lived; she died four years later. Harry worked in film production in New York and remained close to Alice’s family. He met his second wife, Doreen, through mutual

Robert earned a BA from Reed and a doctorate from Oregon State University in chemistry and then taught chemistry for 35 years at San Diego State University.

After retiring, he traveled and did volunteer work. Survivors include his wife of 69 years, Beth; two daughters; four grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Lu Ann Williams Darling ’42 October 11, 2012, in Los Angeles, California, from a series of strokes.

Lu Ann was the first in her family to attend college. “It was my mother’s dream to have more education,” she later wrote. “She pushed that value onto me and it took!” Growing up in a working-class family, march 2013 Reed magazine 55

In Memoriam

John Babala AMP ’44

Lu Ann demonstrated early on a determination to succeed. She earned top grades at Lincoln High School and received a grant and work-study package that enabled her to attend Reed. Her adviser, Spencer Albright [political science 1940–42], encouraged her to do an interdivisional major between psychology and political science. To earn money, she worked for Ann Shepard ’23 [dean of women, 1926– 68] and served as a telephone operator and receptionist in the president’s office. On Saturdays and during holidays, she did stockroom work at Charles F. Berg department store, including pressing new dresses. (One of her college papers was titled “The Seamy Side of Life.”) At Berg’s, she also operated the elevator and worked in the shoe department. “The financial picture was always front and center in my mind, as it was for many of the day dodgers like me who commuted to Reed,” she noted.

Encouraged by Albright, Lu Ann accepted an internship with the Portland Civil Service Board in her junior year and was promoted to parttime personnel technician there during her senior year. Fellow technician Richard Darling was smitten by her. “So here I was,” she wrote, “balancing my Reed schedule, my work schedule, and my thesis writing with my personal life. Ouch! It was hard and conflicting. But also very exciting!” Dick went to war, and they married a year later in the Eliot Hall chapel. After graduation, Lu Ann earned a master’s in education at the University of Michigan and an EdD from UCLA. “As it did for many of us, Reed taught me how to think. That plus my pattern of hard work and perseverance have paid off—I have had a long and successful professional career.” She worked in personnel with the Corps of Engineers and UCLA; served as a consultant in leadership and organization development at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles; did organizational consulting in health care; and wrote two books, Strategic Thinking for the New Health Care and Discovering Your Mentoring Mosaic: A Guide to Enhanced Mentoring.

An illness contracted during World War II put Dick on disability early in life, and he died in 1985. Lu Ann worked full time while raising their children, Martha Darling ’66 and Steve.

“Extraordinary wife, mother, mentor, and friend, her caring heart and twinkling eye will be missed by the many people she so positively influenced. She was a treasure to her family and her multitude of friends and colleagues.”

Survivors include Martha and her husband, Gil Omenn; Steve and his wife, Linda; and three grandsons, David, Michael, and Ricky.

Donations in Lu Ann’s memory may be made to the Lu Ann Williams Darling Class of 1942 Centennial Scholarship Fund.

John attended Reed in the premeteorology program while serving in the Army Air Corps during World War II. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and an MBA from the University of Detroit. He was general manager of Harlan Electric and founder of Hammer & Smith Electric in Flint, Michigan. Survivors include two daughters and two sons. His wife, Marion, to whom he was married for 33 years, predeceased him.

56 Reed magazine march 2013

June 1, 2012, in Grand Blanc, Michigan.

Roland A. Dexter AMP ’44

April 12, 2009, in Sarasota, Florida.

Roland attended Reed in 1944 in the premeteorology program and again as a transfer student in 1946–47. He earned a BA in science from Washington State University. “The two years I spent at Reed exposed me to extraordinary teachers,” he wrote. During World War II, he was an officer in radar technology in the Army Air Corps. Roland had a lifetime passion for law.

He earned a JD from Northeastern University and was an accomplished patent attorney, practicing in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Texas, and Florida. His extensive overseas travels inspired him to work as an international patent attorney well into his 80s. Survivors include two daughters and four grandchildren.

Norman F. Carrigg ’46

October 31, 2012, in San Rafael, California.

Norman attended Reed for a year in 1942–43 and left the college to rejoin the Navy Reserve.

After the war, his Reed professors recommended him for an advancetrack medical program at the University of Oregon, where he earned a BS and an MD. Norman was passionate about research and was considered a pioneer in the field of oncology, then a subset of hematology.

He moved to California to establish a medical practice and was an associate professor of medicine at UCSF. He also served as medical director of Regional Cancer Foundation, a nonprofit offering no-cost, expert second medical opinions to people diagnosed with cancer. “When the only consideration is the patient, doctors are strictly objective,” he said in an interview.

“Nobody has anything to gain by their opinion, so it’s possible to be absolutely straightforward with every person that we see.” He continued to practice medicine on a pro bono basis, working at the foundation once a week, until he retired in 2006. Brief as his time was at Reed, Norman maintained a connection to the college, and looked for an opportunity to give back.

At the suggestion of Larry Large, who led Reed’s development efforts in 1982–87 and 1995–99, Norman chose to endow a chair for the college

librarian. The Norman F. Carrigg Librarianship was established in 2007. Survivors include his nieces and nephews.

Marjorie Jean Sinclair Wolf ’47

September 14, 2012, in Portland.

Marjorie attended Reed for one year and completed her bachelor’s degree in English literature at Willamette University. She also earned a master’s degree from Lewis & Clark College. For 27 years, she taught language arts to children in middle schools in Canby, Oregon. She was also a member of St. Patrick Church in Canby.

Survivors include her husband, Cleophas Wolf, whom she married in 1953; three sons, including Lewellyn S. Wolf ’76; three daughters; 14 grandchildren; and a sister.

Barbara Davis ’50

August 1, 2012, in Portland.

Barbara was born in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, to American academics. She lived in various cities in the U.S. and also spent a year in Brazil. At Reed, she studied Russian literature and she met Robert Crowley ’49, whom she married. The couple moved to Berkeley, where Barbara completed a BA in Slavic languages; they had two daughters and a son. Barbara later returned to Portland, where she drove a cab and worked for the TriMet bus system. She was interested in peace and justice issues throughout her life. Survivors include her children, three grandchildren, and her sisters and brother.

Eleanor Arline Danielson Westling ’51 June 30, 2012, in Milwaukie, Oregon.

Eleanor earned a BA from Reed in biology and an EdM, with a minor in biological sciences, from Oregon State University.

She taught high school biology and chemistry for a few years and then devoted her time and energy to her family and to volunteer work. Survivors include her husband of 60 years, Norman E. Westling; two daughters; one son; and four grandchildren.

Donald G. Kassebaum ’54 October 19, 2012, in Portland, Oregon.

Don earned a BA from Reed in biology and completed an MD at the University of Oregon Medical School. His residency training in internal medicine and cardiology was done at the medical school and at the Veterans Hospital in Portland, and he was a senior research fellow in the cardiovascular division at the University of Utah College of Medicine. In 1962, he joined the clinical faculty of the University of Oregon Medical School, where he became professor of medicine. He was also appointed vice president

and director of hospitals and clinics in the newly organized OHSU. Don’s academic career covered basic physiology and pharmacology, clinical cardiology, and later aspects of teaching, learning, and educational quality assessment in medical schools. Students and colleagues remember him as a medical school legend—one who had an immense breadth of knowledge and fine-tuned instincts about patient health as a patient-oriented clinician. He fostered student-centered and problem-based learning, and he made a major contribution to medical education as executive dean of the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine and as vice president and director of the Division of Medical School Standards and Assessment at the Association of American Medical Colleges in Washington, D.C. He also was administrative secretary of the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the national authority for accreditation of U.S. medical schools, and he assisted in modernizing medical education programs and establishing educational quality standards in a number of countries, including the Republic of Georgia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Switzerland, Mexico, Chile, and Argentina. Don retired from his work in 1999 and lived at the Oregon coast. Throughout his life, he was passionate about classical music and sought to advance his skills as a pianist. He also enjoyed cooking and gardening. Survivors include a sister. Memorial contributions may be made to the Donald G. Kassebaum Scholarship Endowment at Reed.

Margaret Paxson Rhoads Kendon ’59

August 16, 2012, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from cancer.

The first child and only daughter of Teresa Folin Rhoads and Jonathan Rhoads, professor and department head of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania, Margaret came to Reed, where she studied history and Russian. She had a lifelong interest in the culture and history of Russia, traveled to the country many times, and was especially fond of the writings of Chekov and Tolstoy. After graduating from Reed, she enrolled

at Cornell, where she met Adam Kendon, a graduate student in social psychology from England.

Margaret and Adam were married in 1961 and moved to England for five years before returning to the U.S. Margaret earned a master’s degree in Slavic linguistics at Fordham University, while Adam taught at Cornell and did research at Bronx State Hospital. Following Adam’s appointment in anthropology at Australian National University, the family moved to Canberra, Australia, where Margaret was active with Canberra Friends Meeting, qualified as a second language instructor in English, and taught in Canberra schools.

Back in Connecticut, she studied French and connected with New London Friends Meeting. In the ’80s, Margaret resumed her study of Slavic languages at Indiana University and the couple settled in Philadelphia, where Margaret taught Spanish for 25 years. Margaret was active in Germantown Friends Meeting, and was also a board member for the Green Tree School. For several years she served as a member of the Standing Committee on Education of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. A devoted mother and grandmother, Margaret also had a great interest in her larger family and more distant relatives, and regularly hosted family dinners.

Survivors include her husband, a daughter and two sons, six grandchildren, and five brothers.

“She will be greatly missed.”

studied Japanese and traveled with George to Japan; a love of Japanese postage stamps led to her joining the Olympia Stamp Club. She also made and sold little stuffed bears that she named metchkas, an activity her mother had begun and which benefited the Seattle Children’s Hospital.

“Susan was honest and saw the good in everyone.

She will be greatly missed by those who knew and loved her.” Survivors include George, two sons, one daughter, and one grandson.

Susan Helen White Dimitroff ’61

September 28, 2012, in Tumwater, Washington.

At Reed, Susan studied general literature and calligraphy, and met George E. Dimitroff ’60, whom she married. After college, Susan and George moved to Galesburg, Illinois, where she raised their daughter and first son and helped establish the Quaker Meeting. With George’s appointment to The Evergreen State College, the family moved to Olympia, Washington, where Susan attended the Olympic Monthly (Quaker) Meeting and served on meeting committees. In addition, she volunteered as president of the PTA and as a member of the City of Tumwater Planning Commission (for 18 years). Susan

Carolyn Lee Bullard ’64

August 10, 2012, in Portland.

Photo by Damien Bryan

Carolyn earned a BA from Reed in history, and also spent a year studying history and philosophy at the University of Keele in England. She went on to earn an MA in the education of the deaf from Columbia University Teachers’ College and a PhD in education from the University of Washington. Starting in 1978, she taught special education at Lewis & Clark and later served as dean of the graduate school of professional studies. Her personal interests extended to travel, music, horseback riding, reading, and the City Club of Portland. Carolyn married Frank E. Mabrey in 1987; they had two daughters.

Survivors include her husband and daughters, three grandchildren, and two sisters, including Margaret Bullard Taylor ’51.

Annie Laurie Quackenbush Haston MAT ’64 July 29, 2012, in Santa Barbara, California.

Margaret in summer 2012.

Susan Dimitroff ’61

Prior to receiving a master’s degree at Reed, Lolly earned a BA at the University of Oregon, and she later earned a PhD in political science at Washington State University. She was a teacher and an administrator at Humboldt State University. Later, in Santa Barbara, where she lived for over 20 years, she was active in the League of Women Voters, the Democratic march 2013 Reed magazine 57

In Memoriam Women of Santa Barbara, and the Unitarian church. She was dedicated to providing assistance to the poor and underprivileged and she fought tirelessly for women’s rights. Children, in particular, enjoyed her playful and gentle nature and benefited from her keen intellect.

She was greatly valued as a volunteer reading teacher at Adams Elementary School. During a marriage to Bruce Haston MAT ’64, Lolly had a son and daughter, who survive her, as do a granddaughter and brother.

Jack Allen Huhtala ’68

August 31, 2012, in Portland, from cancer.

Jack came to Reed from Astoria, Oregon, and earned a degree in general literature. He also did master’s studies at Portland State University.

He taught English at Beaverton High School for over 30 years. Survivors include his wife, Carolyn, a son and a daughter, three grandchildren, and a brother. One son predeceased him.

Janet Eileen Russell ’68

October 8, 2012, in Walnut Creek, California.

Nearing the end of her life, Janet reflected on her early years: “As a child, she was happiest exploring the library and continued her quest to know everything at Reed College. She became a librarian so that she could help others find answers to their questions. Librarians bring order out of chaos, she explained, like God.” Howard Kaplan ’68, her classmate and friend, wrote the following memorial for her: After receiving her BA in American Studies in 1968, Janet attended graduate school at the University of Chicago, where she received master’s degrees in library science and teaching. For the next two decades, she worked in the Chicago area as a librarian, employed first by the public library system and later by a private library consulting service. In 1989, she entered a second but related career as a professional indexer. The high point of her work in that role occurred in 2004, when she received the Wilson Award Commendation for indexing the latest revision of Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, a project for which her background as a working librarian was of great importance. She was for many years a docent at the Oriental Institute in Chicago, where she developed her interest in ancient Egypt. She also spun wool and occasionally wove or crocheted it, but her primary woolcraft was knitting, for which she developed a special font for incorporating text into knitwear without violating the principles of structurally sound multicolor designs (www .thrinberry-frog.com/WinRKA). Janet had serious health problems for the latter half of her life, arising from congenital kidney disease that was only partially relieved by two separate transplants. She moved back from cold Chicago to warmer Concord to be closer to her family as her health worsened. Eventually, she became 58 Reed magazine march 2013

Jack Huhtala ’68

too ill to undergo further transplantation, and she died in comfort care. Perhaps unusually for a Reedie of her generation, she remained a practicing Catholic for her entire life, expressing her faith in the afterlife in the self-composed obituary written to assist her family in preparing for her death. In that piece, she also asked to be remembered as a supporter of the Bill of Rights, as a cat lover, and as a performer of Tai Chi postures. Survivors include two brothers and a sister.

Janet’s family has dedicated a website to Janet, www.indexingmatters.com.

Sharon Elaine Shuteran ’74

May 5, 2012, on a hike in Baja California, Mexico, from a heart attack.

Sharon attended Reed for two years before transferring to the University of Denver, where she earned a BA and a JD. She began her legal career as a VISTA attorney in Denver; her final position was judge for the San Miguel County Court. In 1979, she moved to Telluride, where she owned and operated the Excelsior Café with her spouse, Peter Muckerman. For 14 years, she did the baking for the café in the morning before going to court. Sharon and Peter had one son, Eliot; they later divorced. Sharon was known outside the courtroom for her tireless work as a volunteer for nonprofits and local festivals, for her work with a medical team in Bhutan, for hosting international students, and for organizing a charter school in Telluride. In addition, she taught conflict resolution workshops. Colleagues remember her as an unfailingly fair judge: she did not move people through the court system, but was attentive to details and committed to finding creative sentencing solutions for every defendant. Friends remember her as compassionate, kind, and generous. “Sharon’s ego was not part of any of her behavior or activities,” said one friend. “It was not in need of reinforcement. Her need was to be of help to others in the world.”

Survivors include her son.

Janet Russell ’68 in 1987

Robert Craft Millikan ’79 October 7, 2012, in Carrboro, North Carolina.

Robert was at Reed for two years before transferring to UC Davis, where he earned a doctorate in veterinary medicine. Following an internship at the University of Pennsylvania, he opened a private veterinary practice. Two years later, he entered the field of molecular biology through a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard. He then earned a PhD in epidemiology from UCLA and joined the epidemiology faculty at the University of North Carolina in the Gillings School of Global Public Health and the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. In 2006, Robert was awarded a grant from the CDC to create a Center for Genomics and Public Health at UNC, focusing on genetic susceptibility to cancer with the outcome of creating programs to reduce cancer risk.

“Dr. Millikan and his colleagues conducted three waves of this country’s groundbreaking longitudinal study of breast cancer in African American and Caucasian women,” said Shelley Earp, MD, director of UNC Lineberger. “Through the Carolina Breast Cancer Study, he sought to understand the complex reasons for poor breast cancer outcomes in African American women. His seminal findings, published in 100 papers, have changed the face of breast cancer disparities research.” In 2008, Robert was appointed Barbara Sorenson Hulka Distinguished Professor in Cancer Epidemiology.

“Dr. Millikan had a major impact on the field of cancer and molecular epidemiology,” said UNC professor Andy Olshan, chair of the epidemiology department. “His innovations led the field and created opportunities for countless epidemiology and other public health students. The department has lost not only a great scientist and teacher but a wonderful friend and colleague.” In 2011, Robert won a $19 million grant from the National Cancer Institute for an ambitious study of breast cancer in African American women. “Dr. Millikan had remarkable breadth in his approach to disease and the health of the public,” said Barbara Rimer, dean of the UNC public health school. “His encyclopedic knowledge of epidemiology, breast

Run studied at Reed for six years with a focus on English literature. He was the arts and education administrator for the Umpqua Valley Arts Center, and he performed in Portland theatre.

He served as artistic director for the Lakewood Players in Washington and was involved in the Northwest Screenwriters Guild. Run wrote short stories and plays, and won an award for creative journalism with the Tacoma News Tribune. He also served as a mentor at Seattle Kollel. He enjoyed drawing and painting. He illustrated books and medical texts, and collected golden age comic books. Survivors include his parents and sisters.

the tradition of “Ray-Orama” music concerts at his family’s vineyard. A friend held a final vineyard “Ray-Orama” concert in his honor. “It was vintage Ray, a way to go out in style, celebrating life,” says Bill. “Ray told Mylrea that his first assignment when studying physics at Reed was to describe the physical properties of the Road Runner cartoon world. The most memorable attribute of that world was that gravity didn’t work until you realized you were standing on air. When you looked down, you dropped. Ray showed amazing strength in his battle against cancer. Day after day he picked himself up and went to work in his laboratory. Ray’s doctor told him that his illness was terminal, and that he could expect to die by Christmas. Ray looked down. From the time he came to understand that he was standing on air, he began to slip away. That’s physics. He was gone in a week.

Ray will be missed.” Survivors include Mylrea, son Quintin, and daughter Veda Rose.

Raymond Dana Kreth ’84

Alexander Botero-Lowry ’09

cancer, and melanoma were fully matched by his compassion for and understanding of all aspects of health disparities. The nation has lost a brilliant, humane public health leader.”

Run Vzel (Rony Wiesel) ’82 May 4, 2012, in Cleveland, Ohio, from cancer.

October 18, 2012, in Monroe, Oregon, from aggressive head and neck cancer.

“Ray was my best friend from my four years at Reed,” says Bill Kallman ’83. “He was a brilliant, amazing, talented guy, always ready to help you out.” Sheila Quinlan ’83 writes: “Ray was always an exuberant presence in my years at Reed. He was filled with energy and ideas, but what I remember most about him was his immense warmth and that he was always inviting everyone to his house for dinner. His housemates were Gary Hollingsworth ’84, Eric Walla ’83, and John Shannon ’85. Ray introduced me to John and played matchmaker and it seemed to take since we have been married these 25 years.” Ray earned a BA at Reed in physics, and after completing an MS from the University of Oregon in physics, accepted a position at Oregon State University—his first and only job—as an instrumentation engineer for the Ocean Mixing Group in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences. He was highly regarded by his colleagues as “a resourceful engineer who saved many a seagoing experiment.” Ray’s work involved measuring the currents and physics of the oceans, says Bill. “He was lucky in his career. He started his oceanography job at OSU, loved it, and became a world expert, traveling the world dropping sensitive custom instruments into the deep, measuring the flows, and retrieving the data.” OSU colleagues stated that regardless of conditions, Ray could be counted on to rise to a challenge—providing technical expertise or simply lending a helping hand. “He was our friend. His talents and character will be missed.” Ray could build or repair just about anything. He and his wife, Mylrea Estell, raised Shetland sheep on their farm, and Ray planted pinot gris stock from the Alsace region—as had his father—for his Lush Vineyards. Because he loved music, Ray began

August 24, 2012, in San Francisco, California.

Alex was an anthro major and worked in computing & information services at Reed. Steve Wissow ’07 recalls Alex on the computing policy committee (CPC), when Alex was administrator for the student information network and Steve was the online yearbook editor. “I remember disagreeing with him in a CPC meeting, and appreciating how he both said exactly what he thought and also listened to and empathized with what others thought, and didn’t compromise either for the other.” Marty Ringle, chief information officer, says, “As a member of the CPC from 2006 to 2009, Alex displayed a unique blend of arcane technical knowledge, community conscience, and sardonic humor. He frequently raised critical questions and was often the only person in the room who could actually answer them.” Says Marianne Colgrove ’84, deputy chief information officer: “Alex was witty and congenial, also brilliant and opinionated—a great Reedie! Though we met through technology at Reed, his technical savvy long ago surpassed mine. Our relationship was much more about food than technology.

I have worked with a lot of students over the years, but it is unusual to develop a personal relationship that transcends our jobs, and our student-to-grownup relationship.” After graduation, Alex worked as software engineer for Metaweb Technologies and then for Google in San Francisco.

“Alex really was special for us,” Marianne says.

“We will miss having him in our lives and on the planet.” Survivors include his parents, sister, and grandparents.

Staff, Faculty, and Friends

Elissa Metterhausen Gronke June 30, 2012, in Milwaukie, Oregon.

Born in Chicago, and a graduate in biochemistry from the University of Illinois, Lisa was a woman ahead of her time, “pursuing a career in the era when women were expected to stay at home and care for the family while their husbands supported them.” Her work as a biochemist helped finance the undergraduate education of her four children, Deborah, Edward P. Gronke ’82, Paul Gronke [political science 2001–], and Thomas. The family moved from Chicago to Houston, Texas, where Lisa worked and studied at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. She also took up the hobby of bird watching and carried this interest to a new home in New York and finally to the Portland area—“a birdwatcher’s paradise,” she reported. Lisa served as a faculty assistant for Reed’s physics department in 1977–78, and was instrumental in bringing David Griffiths [1978–2009], emeritus professor of physics, to the college. In 1979, she began working with Jan Stevens, wife of Carl Stevens [economics 1954–90], at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). Lisa did research in the neurology department and in the pediatric metabolic lab at OHSU in the ’80s. Her work at OHSU shifted from research to computer science and to support for the lab’s data collection.

She took programming classes and also worked on computer network bulletin boards through the late ’90s in Portland. “She was unusual in this world of geeks as a female over 50, and was known as ‘Grandma Nerd.’” Skilled also in the kitchen, Lisa’s cooking skills were based on her scientific training: “reducing the art of pies to a system of careful measurements and tests, producing pie crusts still fondly remembered by her children.” Lisa was a vital part of the life of her close-knit family. “Her like doesn’t come along very often.” Survivors include her husband, Edward P. Sr.; four children; nine grandchildren; and her brother. pending: Paul Simpson ’36, Ethel Fahlen Noble ’40, Marian Wing O’Neill ’42, Elizabeth Tator Dissly ’43, Donald Pinkham AMP ’44, Cecil Rix AMP ’44, Cornelia LeBoutillier Eyre ’46, John Siegle Sr. ’47, Joyce Simon Gillespie ’48, George Spencer ’50, Charles Hawkins ’52, Joan Baker ’53, Arthur Johnson ’53, Merrill Francis ’54, Donald Kephart ’54, Victoria Moran Sargent ’54, J. Frank Thibeau ’54, Stanley Nathenson ’55, Patrick O’Neill ’58, Kathleen Cronin Tinkel ’63, Daniel Abrams ’70, Jacqueline Kohler Koch ’70 & MAT ’71, David Weinstock ’92, and Kenneth Loveall MALS ’98.

march 2013 Reed magazine 59

Apocrypha

tradition • myth • legend

Simpson for Queen!

60 Reed magazine march 2013

David Livermore ‘45

The black-tie political dinner in the Commons held October 30, 1936, promised to be an elegant and provocative affair.

Seat cards announced tables for Democrats, Republicans, Socialists, Unionists, Communists, and Mugwumps (for students who eschewed party labels).

George Read ’39, chairman of the political dinner, invited five well-known representatives of Oregon’s political spectrum, including Republican U.S. Congressman William A. Ekwall and his Democratic challenger, Nan Wood Honeyman (who would unseat Ekwall in the election four days later). In the depths of the Great Depression, the dinner would provide an open forum for the leading political issues of the day, held in classic Reed style. In advertisements for the dinner, George wrote, “Heckling of the speakers, in accordance with time-honored tradition, will be permitted.”

But halfway through the dinner, George’s well-laid plans unraveled. A bunch of Reedies burst through the doors waving huge, yellow, butcher-paper signs proclaiming “Simpson for Queen—God Save the King.”

The signs referred to the crisis then gripping the United Kingdom as King Edward VIII sought a way out of the dilemma posed by his love for Mrs. Wallis Simpson, an American socialite with two living ex-husbands.

Arriving at the scene of the dinner to make some sense of the ruckus was a man introduced as “Dr. Myron K. Blackstone,” allegedly a fellow of the “North American Institute for Political Research.” Sharp-eyed diners recognized Dr. Blackstone as Lamar Holt ’40, disguised under a fake beard and glasses that would have made Groucho Marx blush.

Cutting someone else’s speech short, Dr. Blackstone announced, “I offer to you, the first audience in the world, the program and the platform for an entirely new political party . . . Regardless of who gets in the White House, we want an American in Buckingham Palace. Mrs. Simpson for Queen!”

“God save the King!” shouted confederates sprinkled around the room. Then about

Reed students (including Helen Branigin ’40 , Angus Crawford ’40, and Arthur Livermore ’40) commandeered a truck for the Simpson For Queen stunt of October 1936. President Dexter Keezer was reportedly not amused.

20 members of the newly formed “Reed College International Chapter No. 1 of the Simpson for Queen Committee” rushed out of the Commons, piled into a rented Covey truck, and cruised Broadway several times every evening until the election, playing trumpets and making stump speeches. Dr. Blackstone, Mrs. Simpson, and Edward VIII were the most popular Halloween costumes at Reed that year.

Alumni from the period fondly remember the prank, although it was almost lost to history. “The boom to extend American influence to Buckingham Palace came as a hilarious surprise to all but a few participants,” reported the Oregonian in a two-sentence mention on November 1, 1936. Time magazine gave the event eight sentences, although editors of the British edition, in an apparent effort to shield the Crown, redacted the piece but ran the accompanying photograph snapped by David Livermore ’45 using a big Graflex camera.

Six students are visible, standing proudly or beaming in front of the truck, including Helen Branigin ’40, Angus Crawford ’40, and Arthur Livermore ’40.

Reed’s waggish president, Dexter Keezer [president 1934–42], wasn’t too keen on such activity, recalls Ethel Noble ’40. “He would always say, ‘You’re free to do all these demonstrations, but not in the name of Reed College,’ yet somehow we were well-known around town as Reedies,” she said.

Ethel added that the wacky costumes made it clear that the rallies were simply in jest, but Earnest Movius ’37 and Lee Charette ’39 recalled a serious motivation to make light of Reed’s reputation as a “red” school and poke fun at conservatives’ overblown reaction to the Simpson scandal, which was finally resolved on December 10, 1936, when Edward VIII abdicated. (Public displays of affection were rare in 1936; Enny Schulz ’40 recalled that the king’s announcement was the first time she had ever heard a man publicly state he loved a woman.)

“It was a prank with a meaningful, downto-earth philosophy behind it,” Earnest said.

— Raymond Rendleman ’06 Raymond Rendleman ’06 is the news editor of the Clackamas Review and a confirmed Mugwump.

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As a professor, she in turn mentored decades of Reed students.

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Contact Kathy Saitas at 503/777-7573 or plannedgiving@reed.edu to make sure Reed can accept your gift as written. plannedgiving.reed.edu

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Innovation in our DNA. Classics major Ben Stephens ’14 runs through his investor pitch for Genebot, a robotic lab assistant, at Working Weekend ’13. The Genebot team won $2,500 in seed money to take the concept to the next level.