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 Portland, Oregon, along with their past and present positions. In addition to famous Reed College graduates, it also includes some famous Reedies who did not graduate.

Science, Mathematics, Computing, and Engineering

 * John Backus, 1932 – Professor of Physics, University of Southern California
 * Vivian Annabelle Johnson, 1932 – Professor of Physics, Purdue University
 * Cleota Gage Fry, 1933 – mathematician and professor at Purdue University
 * 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
 * Jorge M. López, 1967 – mathematician and professor at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus
 * 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
 * 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
 * Mark Galassi, 1987 – physicist and computer scientist, Los Alamos National Laboratory
 * Irena Swanson, 1987, mathematician and professor at Reed College
 * Craig DeForest, 1989 – astrophysicist, director of the PUNCH mission
 * Edward Ramberg (did not graduate) – physicist

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
 * 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
 * David Velasco, 2000, editor-in-chief of Artforum
 * 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

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

 * 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
 * Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, United States Representative from Washington state
 * Richard L. Hanna, 1973 – United States Representative from New York (R)
 * Cordelia Hood, 1936 – Office of Strategic Services and CIA agent
 * Mingus Mapps, Portland, Oregon city council member
 * 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
 * Roger Hobbs, 2011 – author of Ghostman and Vanishing Games
 * 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
 * Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi, 2014 — journalist, host of NPR's Planet Money
 * 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 NPR's 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

 * 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

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
 * 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
 * Douglas Spink – zoophilia advocate and drug smuggler
 * 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

 * Kimberly Clausing — economist, deputy assistant secretary for tax analysis at the United States Department of the Treasury
 * William J. Connell – historian
 * Paul Douglas – US Senator from Illinois
 * David J. Griffiths – physicist
 * Daniel Reisberg – psychology
 * Darius Rejali — Iranian-American political scientist, specialist on the political uses of torture

Administration

 * Paul Bragdon – college president from 1971 to 1988