List of Reed College people
This page lists notable alumni of Reed College, a distinguished liberal arts and sciences institution located in Portland, Oregon. The list includes individuals recognized for their achievements, along with their current and/or former roles.
Students who met specific academic requirements, but did not graduate, are considered full alumni by the college and identified as non-degreed alumni within this list for clarity.
Alumni
Academia
Economics
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 – 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 – musician
- Simone Forti – choreographer
- Rob Heinsoo, 1987 – game designer
- Matt Keeslar, 2014 - actor
- Hope Lange – actress
- Jayne Loader, 1973 – writer and director; produced and co-directed The Atomic Cafe
- Peter Mars, 1982 – artist
- Robert Morris, 1953 – 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 – 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
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 – winemaker
Government
- Josiah H. Beeman V, 1958 – United States Ambassador to New Zealand
- Bud Clark – Mayor of Portland
- Richard Danzig, 1965 – 71st Secretary of the Navy
- Suzan DelBene, 1983 – United States Representative from Washington state
- 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
- 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 – candidate for the United States House of Representatives
- Howard Wolpe, 1960 – Congressman
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 J. Martinez, 1973 – Chief Justice, Colorado Supreme Court
- Paul Alan Levy, 1973 — attorney at Public Citizen specializing in Internet-related free speech issues
- 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 – US District Judge, District of Oregon
- Jacob Tanzer – Justice, Oregon Supreme Court
- Fay Stender – 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 – 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
- LJ Pemberton, 2005 – novelist, longlisted for the 2025 Dublin Literary Award
- 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 '
- 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 '
- 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 – 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 – activist and scholar
- Randall Giles – 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
- Peter Stafford – 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 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
- Hunter Scangarelo, 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