List of Reed College people

This page lists prominent, famous, and notable alumni of Reed College, an American institution of liberal arts and sciences, located in Oregon's most populous city, Portland, along with their past and present positions. In addition to famous Reed College graduates, it also includes some famous Reedies who did not graduate.

Alumni

Academia

• Julia Adams – sociologist; professor, Yale University
• Jon Appleton, 1961 – composer; Arthur R. Virgin Professor of Music at Dartmouth College, Visiting Professor of Music at Stanford University
• Karl W. Aschenbrenner, 1934 – professor, University of California, Berkeley
• Louis T. Benezet, 1939 – President, Colorado College
• Sacvan Bercovitch (did not graduate) – Professor of American Literature, Harvard University
• Charles Bigelow, 1967 – Professor of Type Design and Writing, Rochester Institute of Technology
• Jonathan Boyarin, 1977 – Mann Professor of Modern Jewish Studies; Professor of Anthropology, Cornell University
• Robert Brenner, 1964 – Professor of History, UCLA
• Joan Bresnan, 1966 – Professor of Linguistics, Stanford University
• Robert A. Brightman, 1973 – Greenberg Professor of Native American Studies, Reed College
• Peter Child, 1975 – composer, professor of music at MIT
• Jessica Coon, 2004 – Linguistics Professor at McGill University
• Galen Cranz, 1966 – Professor of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley
• Ann Cvetkovich, 1980 – Associate Professor of English at University of Texas, Austin; author of several books, including An Archive of Feelings: Trauma, Sexuality, and Lesbian Public Cultures
• Shannon Lee Dawdy, 1988 – Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Chicago
• Kai T. Erikson, 1953 – President, American Sociological Association and Professor at Yale University
• Elizabeth Warnock Fernea, 1950 – anthropologist
• Janet Fitch, 1978 – Professor of Professional Writing, University of Southern California
• Neil Fligstein, 1973 – Professor of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley
• David H. French, 1939 – anthropologist and linguist
• Victor Friedman, 1970 – Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Balkan and Slavic Linguistics, University of Chicago
• David Grusky, 1980 – Barbara Kimball Browning Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University
• Peter Gordon, 1988 – Professor of History, Harvard University
• Ted Robert Gurr, 1957 – Professor of Political Science, Northwestern University
• Loyd Haberly, 1919 – Dean, Fairleigh Dickinson University
• Peter Dobkin Hall, 1968 – Hauser Lecturer on nonprofit organizations, Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
• Carol Heimer, 1973 – Professor of Sociology, Northwestern University
• David Hoggan, 1945 – controversial historian
• Dell Hymes, 1950 – anthropologist and linguist
• Maurice Isserman, 1973 – Professor of History, Hamilton College
• Lewis Webster Jones, 1921 – President of Rutgers University
• Don Kates, 1962 – criminologist
• Gail M. Kelly, 1955 – anthropologist
• Wallace T. MacCaffrey, 1942 – scholar of Elizabethan England; chaired the Harvard University history department twice
• Brendan McConville, 1987 – Professor of History at Boston University
• William D. McElroy, 1939 – Chancellor, University of California, San Diego and former Director, National Science Foundation
• Dennis B. McGilvray, 1965 – Professor of Anthropology, University of Colorado
• Lisa Nakamura, 1987 – Professor at the Institute of Communication Research and Asian American Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
• Kaori O'Connor, 1968 – Senior Research Fellow, University of London
• Christopher Phelps, 1988 – Professor of History, University of Nottingham
• Ray Raphael, 1965 – historian
• Diane Silvers Ravitch (did not graduate) – Professor of History, New York University; Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution
• Barbara Reskin (did not graduate) – Professor of Sociology, University of Washington
• Lawrence Rinder, 1983 – Dean of Graduate Studies at the California College of the Arts; former Curator of Contemporary Art at the Whitney Museum
• Stephen Shapin, 1966 – historian and sociologist of science at Harvard University; taught at the University of Edinburgh and the University of California, San Diego
• Robert E. Slavin, 1972 – Director of the Center for Research and Reform in Education, Johns Hopkins; cooperative learning, project Success for All
• George Steinmetz (academic), 1980 - Professor of Sociology, University of Michigan
• Robert K. Thomas (did not graduate) – Academic Vice President, Brigham Young University
• Katherine Verdery, 1970 – Julien J. Studley Faculty Scholar and Distinguished Professor, Anthropology Program, City University of New York Graduate Center
• Jon Westling, 1964 – President Emeritus and Professor of History at Boston University
• Richard Wolin, 1974 – Professor at City University of New York Graduate Center

Arts and entertainment

• Jacob Avshalomov, 1941 – composer
• Stella Baker, 2015 – actor
• Kip Berman, 2002 – songwriter and vocalist for The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
• Jody Bleyle, 1992 – singer, songwriter, musician
• Xenia Cage, 1935 – artist and musician
• Jennifer Camper, 1979 – cartoonist
• Peter Child, 1975 – composer, professor of music at MIT
• Ry Cooder, 1971 – singer, songwriter; attended Reed for one semester
• Robert Cornthwaite, 1939 – actor
• Lamar Crowson, 1948 – pianist
• Dr. Demento, born Barret Hansen, 1963 – radio personality
• Pozzi Escot, 1956 – composer
• Johanna Fateman (did not graduate) – musician
• Simone Forti (did not graduate) – choreographer
• Rob Heinsoo, 1987 – game designer
• Matt Keeslar, 2014 - actor
• Hope Lange (did not graduate) – actress
• Jayne Loader, 1973 – writer and director; produced and co-directed The Atomic Cafe
• Peter Mars, 1982 – artist
• Robert Morris, 1953 (attended two years) – sculptor
• Bill Morrison, 1985, filmmaker, Guggenheim fellow
• Charles Munch, 1968 – painter
• Daria O'Neill, 1993 – Portland radio and TV personality
• Eric Overmyer, 1973 – screenwriter, producer, playwright
• David Reed, 1968 – artist
• Lawrence Rinder, 1983 – Director of the Berkeley Art Museum
• Brian Rolland (did not graduate) – musician
• Leo Rubinfien, 1974 – photographer
• Susan Silas, 1975 – artist
• Pat Silver-Lasky 1949– screenwriter and actress
• Morgan Spector, 2002 - actor
• Kim Spencer, 1970 – television producer
• David Henry Sterry, 1978 – author, actor/comic
• Igor Vamos, 1990 – contemporary artist, member of The Yes Men
• Anne Washburn, 1991 – playwright (Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play)

Business

• Emilio Pucci, 1937 – fashion designer; member of the Italian Parliament
• Bill Naito, 1949 – Portland businessman, developer, and civic leader
• Robert Friedland, 1974 – businessman and CEO of Ivanhoe Mines
• Suzan DelBene, 1983 – CEO of Nimble Technology and Vice President at Microsoft

Economics

• Dorothy Brady, 1925 – Professor of Economics, University of Pennsylvania
• Robert A. Brady, 1923 – Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley
• Rose Friedman, 1930 – author; wife of Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman; economist in her own right; left in 1930 after her sophomore year
• Mason Gaffney, 1948 – economist and critic of neoclassical economics
• John Krutilla, 1949, economist who developed concept of existence value
• 

  Walter Berns (with First Lady Laura Bush and President George W. Bush) receiving the National Humanities Medal
  Kalman J. Cohen, 1951 – Professor of Economics, Duke University
• Dale W. Jorgenson, 1955 – economist, professor at Harvard University, past president of the AEA and the Econometric Society
• Michael Rothschild, 1963 – economist, Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University
• Nicolaus Tideman, 1965 – economist
• Yoram Bauman, 1995 – economist and stand-up comedian
• Ross Starr (did not graduate) – Professor of Economics, University of California, San Diego
• Walter Berns (did not graduate) – Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute

Food and Drink

• James Beard, expelled 1922/23; honorary degree 1976 – chef and cookbook author
• Mark Bitterman, 1995 – food writer and author
• Steven Raichlen, 1975 – television chef, author
• Kate Christensen, 1986 – food writer and author
• Susan Sokol Blosser, 1967 – founder of Sokol Blosser Winery
• Sean Thackrey (did not graduate) – winemaker

Government

Suzan DelBene

Richard L. Hanna

• Josiah H. Beeman V, 1958 – United States Ambassador to New Zealand
• Bud Clark (did not graduate) – Mayor of Portland
• Richard Danzig, 1965 – 71st Secretary of the Navy
• Suzan DelBene, 1983 – United States Representative from Washington state (D)
• Chris Garrett, 1996 – member of the Oregon Legislature
• Richard L. Hanna, 1973 – United States Representative from New York (R)
• Cordelia Hood, 1936 – Office of Strategic Services and CIA agent
• Sheldon T. Mills, 1927 – Former United States Ambassador to Afghanistan
• J. Elizabeth Mitchell, 1991 – member of the Maine Legislature
• Norman Solomon (did not graduate) – candidate for the United States House of Representatives
• Howard Wolpe, 1960 – Congressman (D-Michigan)

Law

• Hans A. Linde, 1947 – Justice, Oregon Supreme Court
• Berkeley Lent, 1948 – Chief Justice, Oregon Supreme Court
• George M. Joseph, 1951 – Chief Judge, Oregon Court of Appeals
• Michael E. Levine, 1962 – Senior Lecturer at the New York University School of Law; Dean Emeritus of the Yale School of Management
• Alex Martinez, 1973 – Chief Justice, Colorado Supreme Court
• Jessica Litman, 1974 – Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, legal advisor
• Katya Komisaruk, 1978 – civil rights lawyer
• Alafair Burke, 1991 – Assistant District Attorney, Multnomah County, Oregon; Professor of Law, Hofstra University; crime and mystery writer
• Chris Garrett, 1996 – Justice, Oregon Supreme Court
• Gus J. Solomon (did not graduate) – US District Judge, District of Oregon
• Jacob Tanzer (did not graduate) – Justice, Oregon Supreme Court
• Fay Stender (did not graduate) – lawyer and prisoners' rights advocate

Literature

• Tamim Ansary, 1970 – author of West of Kabul, East of New York
• Doon Arbus, 1967 – writer and journalist, daughter of Diane Arbus
• Alison Baker, 1975 – writer
• Mary Barnard, 1932 – modernist poet and translator of Greek poet Sappho
• Margaret Bechard, 1976 – science fiction writer
• Don Berry, 1931 – writer
• Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, 1969 – poet
• Lee Blessing, 1971 – playwright
• Hob Broun, 1972, author who became paralyzed and wrote two books by puffing air through a tube.
• Alafair Burke, 1991 – author
• Robert Chesley, 1965 – playwright, novelist, and composer
• Kate Christensen, 1986 – novelist, winner of 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
• Gordon Dahlquist, 1984 – playwright, novelist
• William Dickey, 1951 – poet
• Katherine Dunn, 1969 – journalist and author of Geek Love
• Elana Dykewomon, ca. 1971 – author
• Elyssa East, 1994 – novelist
• David Eddings, 1954 – writer
• Nancy Farmer, 1963 – novelist, winner of National Book Award for Young People's Literature
• Elyse Fenton, 2003 – poet
• Janet Fitch, 1978 – novelist, White Oleander, Paint It Black, and The Revolution of Marina M
• Debra M. Ginsberg, 1984 – author
• Shadab Zeest Hashmi, 1995 – poet
• Ernest Haycox (did not graduate) – author
• Myrlin Hermes, 1997 – author
• Roger Hobbs, 2011 – author of Ghostman and Vanishing Games
• Jemiah Jefferson, 1994 – author
• Laleh Khadivi, 1998 – author and writer
• Caroline B. Miller, 1959 – author
• Lisa Dale Norton, 1976 – author
• Steven Raichlen, 1975 – author and writer
• Howard Rheingold, 1968 – writer
• M. C. Richards, 1938 – poet
• David Romtvedt, 1972 – poet
• Mary Rosenblum, 1975 – author
• Vern Rutsala, 1956 – poet and writer
• Tina Satter, 2004 – playwright
• Leslie Scalapino, 1966 – poet, publisher, and playwright
• Genny Smith, 1943 – naturalist, activist, publisher
• Gary Snyder, 1951 – Pulitzer Prize winner and poet
• Vanessa Veselka, 2010 – novelist
• Sally Watson, 1950 – writer
• Philip Whalen, 1951 – poet
• Lew Welch, 1950 – poet

Journalism and media

• Ed Cony, 1948 – Editor of The Wall Street Journal, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1961
• Robert Richter, 1951 – documentary filmmaker and Academy Award winner
• Barbara Ehrenreich, 1963 – journalist, political activist, author of Nickel and Dimed
• Jim Compton, 1964 – journalist at PBS
• Howard Rheingold, 1968 – writer, critic, and virtual media theorist
• Sheila Rogers, 1980 – columnist and TV producer for The Late Show With David Letterman
• Gary Wolf, 1983 – author and writer for Wired.
• Anya Schiffrin, 1984 – business journalist and author of Global Muckraking: 100 Years of Investigative Reporting from Around the World
• Adam L. Penenberg, 1986 – writer, professor of journalism at New York University
• Peter S. Goodman, 1989 – reporter for the New York Times and author of Past Due: The End of Easy Money and the Renewal of the American Economy
• Robert Smith, 1989 — journalist, host of Planet Money.
• Arun Rath, 1994 – correspondent for NPR and WGBH, former weekend host of NPR's All Things Considered
• Michelle Nijhuis, 1996 – journalist
• Peter Zuckerman, 2003 – journalist and author
• Adrian Chen, 2009 – journalist and former staff writer at The New Yorker.

Inventors and Innovators

Steve Jobs

• C. Howard Vollum, 1936 – founder of Tektronix; inventor of the edge-triggered oscilloscope
• Ken Koe, 1945 – co-inventor of Zoloft.
• Bernard Smith, 1948 – sailboat designer
• John Sperling, 1948 – founder of the University of Phoenix
• James Russell, 1953 – inventor of the compact disc
• Peter Norton, 1965 – creator of Norton Utilities
• Richard Crandall, 1969 – computer scientist who developed the irrational base discrete weighted transform used in finding large prime numbers
• Steve Jobs, 1976 (attended as a freshman, did not graduate) – Apple co-founder and former CEO; Pixar co-founder and former CEO
• Pamela Ronald, 1982 – geneticist and developer of flood-tolerant rice
• Larry Sanger, 1991 – co-founder of Wikipedia
• Luke Kanies, 1996 – created Puppet software system

Philosophy

• Karl Aschenbrenner, 1934 – philosopher of aesthetics
• Sydney Shoemaker, 1953 – Susan Linn Sage Professor of Philosophy at Cornell University
• Guy Sircello, 1958 – Professor of Philosophy, University of California, Irvine and scholar of aesthetics
• Jay Rosenberg, 1963 – philosopher of metaphysics, epistemology, and language.
• Allen W. Wood, 1964 – Professor of Philosophy, Indiana University
• Tom Wasow, 1967 – Professor of Linguistics and Philosophy at Stanford University
• Sally Haslanger, 1977 – Professor of Philosophy, MIT
• Eric T. Olson, 1986 – Professor of Philosophy, University of Sheffield; taught at Cambridge University
• Lisa Kemmerer, 1988 – author and professor of philosophy and religion at Montana State University Billings

Psychology and Neuroscience

• Harry Harlow, 1926 (did not graduate) – professor of psychology, University of Wisconsin–Madison
• Herbert Jasper, 1928 – professor of psychology, McGill University
• Eleanor Maccoby, 1939 – psychologist at Stanford University, member of the National Academy of Sciences
• M. Brewster Smith, 1939 (did not graduate) – professor of psychology, University of Chicago
• Jeanne Block, 1947 – developmental psychologist, professor, Stanford University
• Richard F. Thompson, 1953 – professor of psychology, University of Southern California
• Daryl Bem, 1960 – professor of psychology, Cornell University
• Eleanor Rosch, 1960 – professor of psychology, University of California, Berkeley
• Robert Frager, 1961 – social psychologist, founder of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology
• Mary Rothbart, 1962 – educational and developmental psychologist, professor at University of Oregon
• Eleanor Rosch, 1962 – cognitive psychologist, professor at UC Berkeley
• Paul H. Taghert, 1975 – neuroscientist, Washington University in St. Louis
• Roberto Malinow, 1979 – neuroscientist, UC San Diego
• Cyma Van Petten, 1981 – cognitive neuroscientist, professor at SUNY-Binghampton
• Gina G. Turrigiano, 1984 – professor of vision science, Brandeis University; MacArthur Fellow
• Athena Aktipis, 2002 – director of the Human Generosity Project at Arizona State University
• Allen Bergin (did not graduate) – psychologist

Biology and Chemistry

• James Emory Eckenwalder, 1971 - botanist
• Arthur H. Livermore, 1940 – biochemist
• Allah Verdi Mirza Farman Farmaian, 1951 – biologist, Rutgers University
• Bruce Voeller, 1956 – biologist, AIDS researcher, gay-rights activist; coined the term AIDS
• Daniel S. Kemp, 1958 – Professor of Chemistry, MIT
• Mark Ptashne, 1961 – Professor of Molecular Biology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
• Donald Engelman, 1962 – biochemist at Yale University; Guggenheim fellow
• Anne Hiltner, 1963 – polymer scientist and professor at Case Western Reserve
• Kenneth Raymond, 1964 – Professor of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley
• Arlene Blum, 1966 – mountaineer and chemist
• Michael Balls, 1966 – zoologist and professor, University of Nottingham
• Mary Jo Ondrechen, 1974 – Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Northeastern University
• Alison Butler, 1977 – metallobiochemist at UC Santa Barbara, fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Rachel E. Klevit, 1978 – Professor of Biochemistry, University of Washington
• Roger Perlmutter, 1973 – biotechnologist; head of Research and Development at Amgen, Inc.
• Patricia Quinn, 1982 - Atmospheric Scientist, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Fellow of the American Geophysical Union; Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Victor Nizet, 1984 – Professor of Pediatrics and Pharmacy at the University of California, San Diego
• Kevan Shokat, 1986 – Professor and Chair of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at University of California, San Francisco; Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator
• John Alroy, 1989 – paleobiologist
• Stephen C. Sillett, 1989 – botanist, professor at Humboldt State University
• Paul Knoepfler, 1989, stem-cell researcher, author, professor at UC Davis School of Medicine

Science, Mathematics, Computing, and Engineering

• John Backus, 1932 – Professor of Physics, University of Southern California
• John Alexander Simpson, 1940 – Professor of Physics, University of Chicago, and atomic scientist on the Manhattan Project
• Clarence Allen, 1949 – Professor of Geology, California Institute of Technology
• Daniel Bump, 1974 - Professor of Mathematics, Stanford University
• Larry Shaw, 1961 – physicist and founder of Pi Day
• David B. Dusenbery, 1964 – father of sensory ecology
• David Flory, 1964 – physicist; Professor of Physics, Chairman of the Physics Department, and Director of the School of Natural Sciences at Fairleigh Dickinson University
• Arthur Ogus, 1968 – Professor of Mathematics, University of California, Berkeley
• Thomas William Ferguson, 1965 – physician
• Alan H. Borning, 1971 – Professor of Computer Science, University of Washington
• Jonathan Grudin, 1972 – computer scientist
• Mark Galassi, 1987 – physicist and computer scientist, Los Alamos National Laboratory
• Marilyn Olmstead, 1965 - chemist, expert in small molecule crystallography
• Catherine Otto, 1975 – physician
• Daniel Kottke, 1976 – computer scientist
• Lawrence Philips, 1976 – software engineer; developer of the Metaphone family of phonetic encoding algorithms
• Norman Packard, 1977 – chaos theory physicist
• Steven McGeady, 1980 – technologist
• Theodore James Courant, 1982 – mathematician
• Susan Subak, 1982 – environmental and climate scientist
• Kelly Falkner, 1983 – oceanographer, Antarctic researcher
• Peter Shirley, 1985, computer scientist
• Keith Packard, 1986 – software developer; known for his work on the X Window System
• Shep Doeleman, 1986 – astrophysicist, director of the Event Horizon Telescope project
• Irena Swanson, 1987, mathematician and professor at Reed College
• Craig DeForest, 1989 – astrophysicist, director of the PUNCH mission
• Edward Ramberg (did not graduate) – physicist

Other

• Greta Christina, 1983 – blogger
• Mike Davis (did not graduate) – activist and scholar
• Randall Giles (did not graduate) – composer
• Max Gordon, 1924 – owner of the Village Vanguard
• Mukunda Goswami, 1961 – Hare Krishna guru
• Christopher Langan – "America's smartest man;" won a scholarship to Reed after earning a perfect SAT score, but dropped out
• Murray Leaf, 1961 – anthropologist
• Ben Manski (did not graduate) – democracy activist, lawyer, sociologist
• Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, 2016 – human rights activist
• Joann Osterud, 1968 – aviator and stunt pilot
• Harry Wayland Randall, 1936 – member of international brigades in Spanish Civil War
• Aaron Rhodes, 1971 – human rights advocate
• Helen Sandoz – lesbian activist
• Peter Stafford (did not graduate) – author and writer
• Sumner Stone, 1967 – typeface designer
• Michael Teitelbaum, 1966 – program director and demographer at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
• Donald Niven Wheeler, 1936 – political activist

Fictional alumni

• Erlich Bachmann, from HBO's Silicon Valley
• John William Barry from David Guterson's 2008 novel The Other
• Bill McKay, portrayed by Robert Redford in the 1972 film The Candidate
• Donald "Don" Miller in his semi-autobiographical 2003 book Blue Like Jazz and (portrayed by Marshall Allman) in the 2012 Blue Like Jazz film
• Harald Petersen, Reed '27 from Mary McCarthy's 1963 novel The Group
• Japhy Ryder from Jack Kerouac's 1958 novel The Dharma Bums (based on Reed alum Gary Snyder)
• Hunter Scangarelo (did not graduate), friend of Meadow Soprano in the 1999–2007 television series The Sopranos
• Sierra from Charmed Thirds, Megan McCafferty's 2006 novel in the Jessica Darling series
• Lambert "Sharkey" Somers, from Judy Blume's 1998 novel Summer Sisters

Faculty

• William J. Connell – historian
• Paul Douglas – US Senator from Illinois
• David J. Griffiths – physicist
• Daniel Reisberg – psychology

Administration

• Paul Bragdon – college president from 1971 to 1988