Devoted to Maintaining Reed’s Excellence

Stephen R. McCarthy ’66 [Reed trustee 1988–2009]

January 2, 2023, in Portland, from Parkinson’s disease. Steve was often described as the perfect Reedie. Serial entrepreneur, outdoorsman, lover of art, savvy marketer, perfectionist, passionate advocate, he captured the restless quest for excellence, knowledge, and the well-lived life that motivates so many students at Reed.

A second-generation Reedie, his service to the college began as a student when he was elected student body president. It continued as an alumni board member from 1971–72 and led to his appointment to the board of trustees, where he served with distinction for 21 years. As a trustee, Steve contributed greatly to the health of the college.

“In his many-faceted work to change the world for the better, Steve’s leadership of two presidential searches stands out,” said Hugh Porter, vice president for college relations and planning, referring to the appointments of Reed Presidents Steven Koblik [1992–2001] and Colin Diver [2002–12]. “Steve would do anything to find the right president for Reed College. He understood the daunting challenges of the college’s precarious finances and distributed governance structure—and firmly believed it was a great job. He approached the job like a mountaineer, indefatigable and adaptable. A favorite story of his was jumping out of a shower to speak with Apple CEO Steve Jobs about his extensive thoughts on the Reed presidency.”

Serving as vice-chairman of the board from 1998 to 2005, Steve helped identify and recruit 24 new trustees and provided wise and energetic leadership on the trusteeship committee— including three years as its chair. He also played an important role on the development committee. In 2002, Steve was presented with the college’s highest recognition for its volunteers, the Jean Babson Award.

He was the eldest of four boys born to Kate Rogers McCarthy ’39 and Gerald McCarthy, who worked in the orchard business and then as manager of Umpqua Plywood in Roseburg. The family moved several times in the ’40s and ’50s. Steve began school in Tacoma, Washington, and graduated from high school in Roseburg, Oregon. He remembered Roseburg as an “isolated, claustrophobic small town,” but during his senior year in high school, Kate took her children to Grenoble, France, so they could take classes at a local university and drink in the culture. In

Steve, it ignited a perception of the richness of the European lifestyle. After returning to Roseburg, he was accepted at both Reed and Stanford, but chose Reed because it seemed to offer rigor, intellectual freedom, and independence.

He majored in political science, took courses in biology, and, until he moved off the campus the second semester of his sophomore year, he did well. At that point Steve began to lose interest in his studies and became obsessed with the notion of mountain climbing. A summer job doing biological research in Alaska provided him with the money to travel to Kathmandu with Gary Payne ’65 and David Wyatt, a friend of his from Roseburg. While they were descending from a mountain in the high Himalayas, Wyatt fell to his death. Steve was devastated.

He hiked out of Kathmandu, took a steamer to Marseilles, and worked at a hotel in Geneva. Eventually he took a steamship from London to New York, hitchhiked across the country, and arrived back at Roseburg in March of ’64, deeply affected by Wyatt’s death. The Vietnam War was heating up, and because at the time undergraduate college enrollment was an automatic deferment, the woman who ran the local draft board encouraged him to enroll immediately at the University of Oregon. He started at the U of O in the spring of 1964, but that fall returned to Reed. He was immediately aware that the place had changed. There were more students, and the civil rights, antiwar, and sexual liberation movements were in full swing. Drugs were also sweeping up the coast.

“Many of the things I had taken for granted the first two years I was there—the sort of mellowness of the place, the seriousness of our interest in academics, the kind of charitable, kindly atmosphere of an undergraduate school . . . seemed to acquire a terrible edge in that second twoyear period,” Steve remembered. “I had a sort of meltdown experience.”

The following summer, he began working on his thesis, “Two Innovations in Oregon State Government,” advised by Prof. Richard Frost [political science 1960–69]. Planning to use his thesis as a springboard into the Oregon political scene, he scraped together enough money to get an apartment in Salem and begin research. He also got involved in the gubernatorial campaign of crusading journalist Tom McCall.

Steve went on to earn a law degree from New York University and then practiced law for three years. He was hired as executive director for the Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group (OSPIRG) until 1974, when he joined TriMet, Portland’s public transportation agency, where he served as assistant manager and acting general manager. From 1979 to 1987, he was president of Michaels of Oregon, a family-owned manufacturer of hunting and shooting accessories.

He married Lucinda Parker ’66, a Boston native who studied at New York’s Pratt Institute and at Reed. Lucinda has achieved great success as an artist. Her works hang in the Hallie Ford Museum at Willamette University, the Seattle Art Museum, Portland City Hall, the Oregon Convention Center, Reed’s Performing Arts Building, the performing arts center at Lower Columbia College in Longview, Washington, and the federal courthouse in Bakersfield, California, among others.

As an adult traveling in Europe, Steve developed an appreciation for the fruit brandies produced in Germany, France, and Switzerland. “It was a matter of great interest to me why the Americans couldn’t make these wonderful truefruit brandies,” he said. “I’d go to Europe and buy a bottle and bring it back with me and six months later it would be gone. I’d go to the local liquor store to try to find some and it didn’t exist. Nobody knew what I was talking about.”

Eau de vie—what the Germans call schnapps—is a brandy made from pure fermented fruit, which is distilled. There is nothing in the product that wasn’t growing on the tree. It is the most authentic way to make brandy, but alas, also the most expensive and slowest. Steve described pear eau de vie as “a condensed mist of pear.”

He decided to produce his own and began studying with people at distilleries in Germany, France, and Switzerland. He picked up a few tricks of the trade in Europe, but ended up learning more through trial and error. Perhaps the key thing he learned was to concentrate on what’s nearby.

“Eventually I came to appreciate that the people I met ate and drank only what they grew,” he said, “what they had. Their genius was taking whatever they could grow and making something wonderful out of it.” Returning to Oregon, he started with one of the things the state grows best—fruit.

In 1985, he opened Clear Creek Distillery in Northwest Portland, producing eau de vie made from Bartlett pears grown in his family-owned orchards. It took 30 pounds of pears to produce one 750-ml bottle of pear eau de vie. The New York Times spirits critic said it might be the best brandy ever made in the United States.

It was slow going at first, making small batches and rejecting a lot of what was made. The first two years, Steve worked at the distillery on nights and weekends while running his other business, a hunting and shooting equipment company. After selling that business in 1987, he began distilling full time. He spent long hours on the road, trying to win over distributors, retailers, and restaurants, which he called “a humbling, real-world experience.”

Within years, Clear Creek Distillery added apple brandy from Golden Delicious apples grown in Hood River and aged in old Limousin oak cognac barrels; framboise fermented from Sauvie Island raspberries; kirschwasser from cherries grown in the Hood River valley or The Dalles; and slivovitz from Forest Grove blue plums. They would also produce Italian-style grappas, a singlemalt whiskey, and unaged grape brandy that Steve sold to vintners to fortify such wines as port.

“Stephen is one of the two or three best distillers in America,” wrote F. Paul Pacult, editor and managing director of the Spirit Journal newsletter, which went to 20 million readers worldwide. “He shows incredible attention to detail. He has passion.”

In 2014, Steve sold Clear Creek Distillery to Hood River Distillers, Inc.

Steve joined the board of trustees at Reed in 1988. His first board meeting was President Paul Bragdon’s last. Steve believed that Bragdon’s presidency had essentially saved Reed College at a time it was teetering towards insolvency. But there were still many issues to be resolved, beginning with the low rate of student retention.

“We were living with a situation where over half the people that came to Reed left,” he said. “And we had developed a rather elaborate ideology that said ‘That’s okay.’ My 20 years on the board of trustees have been an effort to turn that all around.”

Shortly after joining the board, he was asked to co chair a drug and alcohol task force by Reed President James Powell [1988–91]. Steve also worked to improve the quality of student life, including improving the food that was served in Commons. He and Lucinda were especially supportive of the Gray Campus Center, a

challenging project that dramatically improved Reed’s facilities for student life and music performance. They also founded the Stephen R. McCarthy ’66 and Lucinda Parker McCarthy ’66 Scholarship.

Steve and Lucinda supported the college through special gifts to Reed’s major fundraising campaigns and with very generous unrestricted support to the Annual Fund. Steve worked hard to recruit other alumni to the college’s cause, particularly as chair of the Annual Fund and as a member of the campaign committee for Reed’s second major fundraising campaign, which concluded in October 2000, having raised over $112 million. During the development office’s formative years, Steve was a sounding board for managers and helpful in welcoming and mentoring new staff. In honor of this work, Steve received the college’s development recognition award in 1999.

When President Koblik was leaving campus, he thanked Steve for his important leadership on so many fronts and especially for his engagement with Reed in Portland and support for local college events.

Steve provided important leadership for many other organizations, including the Nature Conservancy, the Columbia River Gorge Commission, earthjustice Legal Defense Fund (formerly Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund), and 1000 Friends of Oregon.

He is survived by his wife, Lucinda ParkerMcCarthy; his daughter, Abigail McCarthy; and his brothers, Timothy, Kermit, and Michael. The college will host a memorial service for Steve from 3 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 22, 2023, at Kaul Auditorium, with a reception following in Gray Lounge.

October 18, 2022, in White Salmon, Washington, from complications of a long-standing illness. For 31 years, Prof. Dell Rhodes was a commanding force on Reed’s campus.

In a joint statement, Dean of the Faculty and Professor of Psychology Kathryn Oleson and Prof. Enriqueta Canseco-Gonzalez [psychology] spoke of the tremendous impact Rhodes had on the college, on the psychology department, and most importantly on students and faculty.

“She was a remarkable role model and mentor to students and junior faculty alike, and a close friend to many,” they said. “We remember Dell’s high standards for excellence, her keen insights into the complicated workings of Reed, her incredibly detailed review of each and every single line on research or student papers, her enthusiasm for developing students into researchers, and her unflagging hard work and dedication.”

Born in Kansas, Rhodes spent most of her youth in Colorado, where she was an avid skier, hiker, Girl Scout Mariner, and an excellent student. Awarded a Boettcher Scholarship, she graduated from Colorado College with a degree in psychology. During her sophomore year, she developed a severe form of rheumatoid arthritis, which presented physical and medical challenges throughout the remainder of her life. Undeterred, she went on to graduate school and received her PhD from UCLA.

Quickly hired as an assistant professor of psychology at Reed, Rhodes became a beloved teacher, mentor, and celebrated faculty member. She rose to the rank of full professor, mentored 84 thesis students, and was renowned for her courses in introductory psychology, biopsychology, sensation and perception, and emotion. Students found her brilliant and supportive;,demanding but caring. She wrote pages of comments on their papers. And after they graduated, she took their late-night telephone calls seeking career and life advice.

Steven J. Luck ’86, professor of psychology at UC Davis, said, “I always tell people that a key difference between Reed and a large public university (like UC Davis) is that there are no grad students at Reed, so Reed students are given the same level of responsibility and opportunity that graduate students are given elsewhere. When I say this, I’m always thinking about how Dell treated me.

“At the beginning of my junior year, Dell had just returned from a sabbatical where she had learned the ERP technique (a souped-up version of an EEG recording). I had some experience with electrophysiology and computers, so she gave me the task of building an ERP lab from scratch. In those days, that meant building custom hardware and writing all the software from scratch.

Dell gave me all the resources I needed for that task, and then she just let me do it. It was an absurd level of responsibility to give to a student, and perhaps it made Dell nervous, but I always felt that I had her full confidence.

“Dell drew me into the ERP technique with this technical job, but then she got me excited about how it could be used to study the mind and brain. We had many great conversations about journal articles we had read. She always made me feel like a colleague rather than a student.

“The next year I ran a series of ERP experiments for my thesis under Dell’s supervision. Again, she gave me tremendous freedom in designing the experiments and analyzing the data. Perhaps the most important thing was that she gave me the opportunity to make a million mistakes. I learned far more from those mistakes than I ever would have learned from being told the right way to do things at the start.

“My experience working with Dell laid the groundwork for the rest of my career. I’ve continued to use ERPs as my main technique, and I’ve made it my personal mission to ‘train the world’ in this technique through workshops, online courses, and books. In my textbook on ERPs (An Introduction to the Event-Related Potential Technique, second edition, MIT Press), the acknowledgments section thanks Dell, noting that ‘Dell Rhodes gave me the opportunity to learn about ERPs by putting together an ERP lab from scratch and taught me that learning should extend for a lifetime.’”

In addition to overseeing and promoting the careers of many students, Rhodes played a major role in the development and governance of both the psychology department and the college. She served as associate dean of students, chaired the psychology department, was a member of the college-wide governing committees, and motivated and directed important changes across all levels of the college. Her contributions to students, colleagues, and the college were frequently noted as extraordinary and irreplaceable, and when she retired in 2006, Reed created a permanent speaker fund in her name.

Rhodes’ research spanned the neurophysiologal and cognitive mechanisms that control the perceptioin of pain, attention, memory, and emotion, leading to publications in major journals.

In 2000, Rhodes married her longtime companion, Will Bloch, and they built a home in White Salmon, Washington. In her retirement, Rhodes became an active participant in the White Salmon and Hood River communities. As a member of the Hood River Art Club, she cultivated her interest in both the making and philosophy of art. She participated in local Democratic Party politics, book clubs, and her Colorado College alumni group. She and Will pursued their mutual interest in wildflowers and the preservation of native plants through their membership in the Native Plant Society of Oregon.

Rhodes is survived by her husband, Will Bloch; her stepson, Matthew Bloch; and her sister, Kristie Ross. A celebration of life for Prof. Dell Rhodes will take place Sunday, March 26, from 2 to 4 p.m., in the Performing Arts Building on the Reed Campus. For more information, contact Jeri Janowsky ’78 at jjanowskj@gmail.com.

October 27, 2022, in Portland.

Growing up in Portland, Jeanette attended Woodstock Elementary and Franklin High schools. She worked as a maid through high school, and during World War II worked in the shipyards. At Reed, she met her husband, Robert Elliott ’49. She became a librarian at Arleta Grade School. Remembered for her intelligent, down-to-earth comments, and humor, she generously gave to her community. She is survived by her brother, Harry; sister, Elizabeth; son, Robert; and daughter, Karen Krettler.

October 5, 2022, in Petaluma, California, at home.

Born in Red Wing, Minnesota, Pete was a proud Swede who learned to row a boat alone on the Mississippi River when he was eight years old, overseen from a distance by his beloved grandfather.

As a young adult, he worked at a foundry in Portland and remained grateful for this experience of that gritty, muscular work. He sang “The Internationale” with gusto at his 92nd birthday party.

At Reed, he met Jenny Hunter, who would become his wife. Through 50 years of marriage, he supported her work as a modern dancer, celebrated calligrapher, and painter. Pete finished his bachelor’s degree at the University of Chicago and earned a second bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a master’s in city planning from UC Berkeley. He worked for the San Francisco Planning Department for many years, and an early major accomplishment was bringing the first computerized system into the department in the days of punchcard systems. His innovative work, along with that of his colleagues, made possible the analysis of census data down to the block areas of the city, which was then used in the community renewal program.

Pete was the photographer and website guru for Jenny, as well as the majordomo planner and installer for her many art exhibits. The couple lived in San Francisco and Mill Valley before settling in Lagunitas, where they became proud chicken farmers of a small flock of Araucana hens. They delighted in caring for the chickens and in sharing fresh eggs with friends and neighbors.

After Jenny died, Pete met artist Helen Webber and formed a domestic partnership, which they lovingly called their “Unmarriage.” Once again, Pete played the essential role of supporter behind the scenes for Helen’s ongoing career as a fabric collage tapestry artist and painter. Helen died three years ago.

Since then, Pete had been cared for by a devoted team of rotating friends and caregivers known as Pete’s People in his beloved home, Hermit Farm. He was a man of great intelligence, a lover of history and philosophy, and an inveterate storyteller to the end. He leaves behind his beloved feline friend, Mister Bill.

September 6, 2022, in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Born in San Diego, Richard spent his childhood in Brooklyn, New York, and Hillsboro, Oregon. At Reed, he wrote his thesis, “The Enzymatic Transpeptidation Reaction Involving Glutathione,” advised by Prof. Alan MacEwan [biology 1951–55]. “Reed had a decisive influence in directing my attitude about work and my philosophy of life,” Richard said. “It was a powerful influence on me as a person.”

After graduating from Reed, Richard served in the United States Army as a member of the nutrition team sent to Taiwan to study and improve the diet of troops. Returning to academia, he earned his PhD in physiological chemistry from UCLA. Richard loved learning and discovery, and taught, researched, and published in the biochemical sciences around the world, including at the University of Amsterdam, University of Arizona, Cornell University, Konstanz University (Germany), National Yang Ming University (Taiwan), Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, and the University of London. He taught biochemistry/biophysics at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii.

Richard’s passion for scientific discovery was matched by his passion for history, and his expansive library spanned history from ancient Roman and Etruscan civilizations to the founding of the United States. He served in numerous service organizations, including the American Heart Association, the Knights of Columbus, and the Lions Club.

He spoke fondly of the community at Reed and the intellectual rigor of the curriculum, which encouraged his daughter, Cynthia, to attend. After retiring from the University of Hawaii, he and his wife, Stella, moved back to the Portland metro area and supported Reed, attending events and lectures. Stella survives him, as do his daughters Amber, Cynthia Muir ’80, and Olivia; his sister, Rosalee; and his brother, Ronald.

December 18, 2020, in Issaquah, Washington, in his sleep. Growing up in the Great Depression in Portland, Jerry graduated from Grant High School and entered the U.S. Army Air Corps, where he served in the Pacific during the end of World War II. After returning to the States, he began at Reed, and during his first year met Alice Parkis on a blind date. During their courtship, he was called back into service in Korea. They were married in 1951 upon his return. Jerry finished his degree in physics, writing his thesis, “An Observation of Charge Carriers in Silver Chloride Crystals at Room Temperature,” advised by Prof. Frederick Brown [physics 1951–55].

When he was hired by Bell Labs, he and Alice moved to New Jersey with their first baby in tow. While at Bell Labs, Jerry earned a master’s degree in physics from NYU. After five years in New Jersey, he accepted a job as an engineer at Boeing, and the family, which had now grown to three girls, moved to Seattle. He was quickly promoted to supervisor and worked on the Minuteman missile project with the U.S. Department of Defense for the majority of his nearly 30 years at Boeing.

When Jerry retired, he and Alice moved to Warrenton, Oregon, achieving their lifelong dream of living at the beach. After 12 years, they moved back to Washington to be closer to their children and grandchildren. Wherever they lived, the pair were involved in church,