List of Reed College people
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This page lists 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.
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Alumni
=Academia=
| class="wikitable"
|+ !Name !Year/degree !Notability |
| Julia Adams
|1980 |Margaret H. Marshall Professor of Sociology at 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 |Philosopher; professor emeritus at University of California, Berkeley |
| Diane Bailey
|N/A |(Did not graduate) Geri Gay Professor of Communication, Cornell University, retired |
| Louis T. Benezet
|M.A. 1939 |President of Allegheny College, Colorado College, the Claremont Graduate University, and the State University of New York at Albany |
| Sacvan Bercovitch
|N/A |(Did not graduate) Writer and cultural critic; Professor of American Literature, Harvard University |
| Walter Berns
|N/A |(Did not graduate) Professor of political philosophy and constitutional law at Yale University, and Cornell University; Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute; recipient of the National Humanities Medal in 2005 |
| Charles Bigelow
|1967 |American type designer and historian; Professor of Type Design and Writing, Rochester Institute of Technology |
| Jonathan Boyarin
|1977 |Anthropologist; Thomas and Diann Mann Professor of Modern Jewish Studies, Departments of Anthropology and Near Eastern Studies at Cornell University |
| Robert Brenner
|1964 |Marxist economic historian; Professor of History, UCLA; director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History |
| Joan Bresnan
|1966 |Linguist; architect of lexical functional grammar; Sadie Dernham Patek Professor in Humanities Emerita at Stanford University |
| Robert A. Brightman
|1973 |Anthropologist; Greenberg Professor of Native American Studies, Reed College |
| Richard Cellarius
|1958 |Emeritus Member of the Faculty, The Evergreen State College; former Assistant Professor, The University of Michigan |
| Peter Child
|1975 |American composer, teacher, and musical analyst; Professor of Music at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and composer in residence with the New England Philharmonic |
| Jessica Coon
|2004 |Linguistics Professor at McGill University, Canada Research Chair in syntax and indigenous languages |
| Galen Cranz
|1966 |Professor Emerita of Architecture at the College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley |
| Ann Cvetkovich
|1980 |Professor in the Feminist Institute of Social Transformation at Carleton University; Ellen Clayton Garwood Centennial Professor of English and Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Texas at Austin |
| Shannon Lee Dawdy
|1988 |Professor of Anthropology and of Social Sciences, University of Chicago |
| Kai T. Erikson
|1953 |President, American Sociological Association and Professor at Yale University |
| Elizabeth Warnock Fernea
|1950 |Anthropologist and filmmaker; chairwoman of the Woman's Studies Program at the University of Texas at Austin{{Cite web |title=Elizabeth Janet Warnock Fernea '49 |url=https://www.reed.edu/reed-magazine/in-memoriam/obituaries/may2009/elizabeth-janet-warnock-fernea-1949.html |access-date=2023-07-22 |website=Reed Magazine {{!}} In Memoriam |language=en-us}} |
| Janet Fitch
|1978 |Writer and professor of writing at the University of Southern California and Pomona College |
| Neil Fligstein
|1973 |Sociologist; Class of 1939 Chancellor's Professor at the 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 |Sociologist; Barbara Kimball Browning Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University |
| Peter Gordon
|1988 |Intellectual historian; Amabel B. James Professor of History at Harvard University |
| Ted Robert Gurr
|1957 |Professor of Political Science, Northwestern University and Distinguished University Professor emeritus at the University of Maryland |
| Loyd Haberly
|1919 |Poet; Dean, Fairleigh Dickinson University |
| Peter Dobkin Hall
|1968 |Professor of History and Theory in the School of Public Affairs at Baruch College, City University of New York, and Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations |
| Carol Heimer
|1973 |Professor of Sociology, Northwestern University |
| David Hoggan
|1945 |Historian; professor at the University of Munich, San Francisco State College, the University of California at Berkeley, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Carthage College; known for promotion of Holocaust denial |
| Dell Hymes
|1950 |Anthropologist and linguist; Dean of the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education; president of the American Folklore Society, the Linguistic Society of America, the American Anthropological Association |
| Maurice Isserman
|1973 |Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of American History, Hamilton College |
| Don Kates
|1962 |Criminologist and lawyer |
| Gail M. Kelly
|1955 |Anthropologist, professor emerita at Reed College |
| Wallace T. MacCaffrey
|1942 |Historian of Elizabethan England; chaired the Harvard University history department twice |
| Brendan McConville
|1987 |Historian of early America; Professor of History at Boston University |
| William D. McElroy
|1939 |Biochemist; Chancellor, University of California, San Diego; former director, National Science Foundation; president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science |
| Dennis B. McGilvray
|1965 |Professor of Anthropology, University of Colorado at Boulder |
| Lisa Nakamura
|1987 |Coordinator of Digital Studies and the Gwendolyn Calvert Baker Collegiate Professor in the Department of American Cultures at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor |
| Christopher Newfield
|1980 |Distinguished Professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara |
| Kaori O'Connor
|1968 |Anthropologist |
| Christopher Phelps
|1988 |Political and intellectual historian; professor of History, University of Nottingham |
| Ray Raphael
|1965 |Historian |
| Diane Silvers Ravitch
|N/A |(Did not graduate) Historian and U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education; Professor of History, New York University Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development; Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution |
| Barbara Reskin
|N/A |(Did not graduate) S. Frank Miyamoto Professor of Sociology at the 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 |Franklin L. Ford Research Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University; winner of the 2014 George Sarton Medal of the History of Science Society |
| Robert E. Slavin
|1972 |Psychologist; Director of the Center for Research and Reform in Education, Johns Hopkins University; cooperative learning, project Success for All |
| George Steinmetz
|1980 |Charles Tilly Collegiate Professor of Sociology and Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan |
| Robert K. Thomas
|N/A |(Did not graduate) Literary critic; professor of English and 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{{cite web |title=Katherine Verdery Appointed to the Graduate Center |url=https://www.gc.cuny.edu/News/All-News/Detail?id=3910 |access-date=2021-11-19 |website=www.gc.cuny.edu}} |
| Jon Westling
|1964 |President Emeritus and Professor of History at Boston University |
| Richard Wolin
|1974 |Intellectual historian; Distinguished Professor of History and Political Science at the CUNY Graduate Center |
== Economics ==
File:BushBerns.jpg (with First Lady Laura Bush and President George W. Bush) receiving the National Humanities Medal]]
| class="wikitable"
|+ !Name !Year/degree !Notability |
| Yoram Bauman
|1995 |Economist and stand-up comedian |
| Dorothy Brady
|1925 |Economist and mathematician; Professor of Economics, University of Pennsylvania |
| Robert A. Brady
|1923 |Chief of the Standards Division, Consumers Advisory Board, National Recovery Administration, and member of the National Resources Planning Board during the New Deal; a founder of the Consumers Union; Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley |
| Kalman J. Cohen
|1951 |Professor of Economics, Duke University |
| Rose Friedman
|N/A |(Did not graduate, left in 1930 after her sophomore year{{cite book |last=Friedman |first=Milton |url=https://archive.org/details/twoluckypeopleme00frie/page/15 |title=Two Lucky People: Memoirs |author2=Rose D. Friedman |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-226-26414-1 |location=Chicago |page=[https://archive.org/details/twoluckypeopleme00frie/page/15 15] |url-access=registration}}) Economist and author; wife of Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman |
| Mason Gaffney
|1948 |Economist; critic of neoclassical economics; director of the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation; professor of economics at the University of California, Los Angeles and Riverside |
| John V. Krutilla
|1949 |Economist; known for developing the concept of existence value; winner of the 1990 Volvo Environment Prize in 1990. |
| Dale W. Jorgenson
|1955 |Economist; professor at Harvard University; past president of the American Economic Association and the Econometric Society; chairman of Section 54, Economic Sciences, of the National Academy of Sciences; winner of the AEA's John Bates Clark Medal in 1971 |
| Michael Rothschild
|1963 |William Stuart Tod Professor of Economics and Public Affairs and Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University; known for introducing the concept of the mean-preserving spread with co-author Joseph Stiglitz |
| Ross Starr
|N/A |(Did not graduate) Professor of Economics, University of California, San Diego |
| Nicolaus Tideman
|1965 |Senior Staff Economist for the President's Council of Economic Advisors; professor of economics at Virginia Tech, Harvard Kennedy School, University of Buckingham, and the American Institute for Economic Research; developed the ranked-pairs voting system |
| Lewis Webster Jones
|1921 |Economist for the League of Nations; President of Bennington College, the University of Arkansas, and of Rutgers University |
== Philosophy ==
| class="wikitable"
|+ !Name !Year/degree !Notability |
| Sally Haslanger
|1977 |Ford Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; 2015 Spinoza Chair of Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam; recipient of the American Philosophical Association's 2014 Joseph B. Gittler Award |
| Lisa Kemmerer
|1988 |Author and professor of philosophy and religion at Montana State University Billings |
| Eric T. Olson
|1986 |Professor of Philosophy, University of Sheffield; taught at Cambridge University |
| Jay Rosenberg
|1963 |Taylor Grandy Professor of Philosophy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
| Sydney Shoemaker
|1953 |Susan Linn Sage Professor of Philosophy at Cornell University |
| Guy Sircello
|1953 |Professor of Philosophy, University of California, Irvine and scholar of aesthetics |
| Allen W. Wood
|1964 |Professor of philosophy at Cornell University, Yale University, and Stanford University; Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Professor emeritus, Indiana University |
| Tom Wasow
|1967 |Clarence Irving Lewis Professor of Philosophy, emeritus, at Stanford University; co-founder of the Center for the Study of Language and Information |
== Psychology and Neuroscience ==
| class="wikitable"
|+ !Name !Year/degree !Notability |
| Athena Aktipis
|2002 |American psychologist, director of the Human Generosity Project at Arizona State University |
| Daryl Bem
|1960 |Social psychologist and professor emeritus at Cornell University. |
| Allen Bergin
|N/A |(Did not graduate) clinical psychologist known for his research on psychotherapy outcomes and the integration of psychotherapy and religion. |
| Jeanne Block
|1947 |Developmental psychologist, professor at Stanford University. |
| Robert Frager
|1961 |Social psychologist, founder of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology |
| M. Brewster Smith
|1939 |(Did not graduate) Professor of psychology, University of Chicago, past president of the American Psychological Association who testified against segregation in schools as an expert witness in the Brown v. Board of Education case. |
| Harry Harlow
|N/A |(Did not graduate) Professor of psychology, University of Wisconsin–Madison, president of the American Psychological Association. |
| Herbert Jasper
|1928 |Professor of psychology, McGill University. |
| Eleanor Maccoby
|N/A |(Did not graduate) Professor of psychology, Stanford University, member of the National Academy of Sciences, most recognized for scholarly contributions to the fields of gender studies and developmental psychology. |
| Roberto Malinow
|1979 |Shiley Chair in Alzheimer's Disease Research at the University of California, San Diego |
| Eleanor Rosch
|1960 |Professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley; primarily known for her work on categorization, and influence on the field of cognitive psychology. |
| Mary K. Rothbart
|1962 |Educational and developmental psychologist, professor at University of Oregon |
| Paul H. Taghert
|1975 |American chronobiologist, and professor of neuroscience at Washington University in St. Louis. |
| Richard F. Thompson
|1953 |American behavioral neuroscientist, William M. Keck Professor of Psychology and Biological Sciences at the University of Southern California. |
| Gina G. Turrigiano
|1984 |American neuroscientist, and is the Levitan Chair of Vision Science at Brandeis University. |
| Cyma Van Petten
|1981 |American cognitive neuroscientist, known for electrophysiological studies on language, memory, and cognition. Professor of Psychology at the State University of New York at Binghamton. |
== Biology and Chemistry ==
| class="wikitable"
|+ !Name !Year/date !Notability |
| John Alroy
|1989 |paleobiologist |
| Michael Balls
|1966 |British zoologist and professor, University of Nottingham |
| Alison Butler
|1977 |Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, Santa Barbara |
| Arlene Blum
|1966 |Chemist and mountaineer |
| James Emory Eckenwalder
|1971 |Canadian botanist. |
| Donald Engelman
|1962 |Biochemist, Higgins Professor of Biochemistry at Yale University |
| R. Kip Guy
|1990 |American pharmaceutical chemist, dean of the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy. |
| Anne Hiltner
|1963 |American polymer scientist at Case Western Reserve University. |
| Daniel S. Kemp
|1958 |American organic chemist, emeritus professor of chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. |
| Rachel E. Klevit
|1978 |Edmond H. Fischer-Washington Research Foundation Endowed Chair in Biochemistry at the University of Washington |
| Paul Knoepfler
|1989 |American biologist, writer, and blogger. He is a professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Human Anatomy, the Genome Center, and the Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine. |
| Arthur H. Livermore
|1940 |American science educator. |
| 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 |
| Mary Jo Ondrechen
|1974 |Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Northeastern University |
| Roger Perlmutter
|1973 |Biotechnologist; head of Research and Development at Amgen, Inc., former executive vice president of Merck & Co. |
| Mark Ptashne
|1961 |Molecular Biologist, Ludwig Chair of Molecular Biology at Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center |
| Kenneth Raymond
|1964 |Professor of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley |
| Kevan Shokat
|1986 |Professor and Chair of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at University of California, San Francisco; Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator |
| Stephen C. Sillett
|1989 |Kenneth L. Fisher Chair in Redwood Forest Ecology for the Department of Biological Sciences at Humboldt State University. |
| Allah Verdi Mirza Farman Farmaian
|1951 |Son of nobleman Abdol Hossein Mirza Farmanfarma, biologist at Rutgers University and Princeton University |
| Bruce Voeller
|1956 |Biologist, AIDS researcher, gay-rights activist; coined the term AIDS |
== 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{{Cite web|url=https://www.reed.edu/reed-magazine/articles/2017/kip-berman-pure-at-heart.html|title=Pure At Heart|last=Lyndon|first=Isabel|date=14 November 2017|website=Reed Magazine|access-date=25 June 2019}}
- Jody Bleyle, 1992 – singer, songwriter, musician{{cite web|url=https://blogs.reed.edu/riffin_griffin/2011/06/riot-grrrl-reunion/|title=Riot grrrl reunion|first=Robin|last=Tovey '97|publisher=}}
- Xenia Cage, 1935 – artist and musician{{Cite web|url=https://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/march2016/articles/features/xenia-kashevaroff-cage.html|title=Sculptor of the Surreal, Whacker of Flowerpots}}John Cage: Composed in America, ed. Marjorie Perloff and Charles Junkerman, University of Chicago Press, 1994, p. 86
- 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 – artistReed College, [http://www.reed.edu/alumni/chapters/chicago/ Reed Chicago Alumni Chapter News] Accessed October 6, 2011
- 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{{cite web|url=http://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/september2011/articles/reediana/briefs.html|title=Reediana Briefs|website=Reed Magazine}} – 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{{Cite web|url=https://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/spring2007/columns/alumni_profiles/blosser.html|title=Reed Magazine: Blosser|website=www.reed.edu|access-date=2019-06-25}}
- Sean Thackrey (did not graduate) – winemaker
=Government=
File:Suzan DelBene, official portrait, 115th Congress.jpg]]
File:Richard Hanna, Official Portrait, 112th Congress.jpg]]
- 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 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 (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{{cite web|url=http://writing.upenn.edu/epc/|title=Electronic Poetry Center|website=writing.upenn.edu}}
- Genny Smith, 1943 – naturalist, activist, publisher{{cite news|url=https://www.reed.edu/reed-magazine/in-memoriam/obituaries/2018/genevieve-hall-smith-1943.html|title=Genevieve Hall Smith ’43|newspaper=Reed Magazine|date=June 2018}}
- 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 [https://thenewpress.com/books/global-muckraking 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 [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/books/review/Barrett-t.html 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 =
File:Steve Jobs Headshot 2010-CROP.jpg]]
- 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{{cite web|url=http://web.reed.edu/apply/about_reed/notable_alumni/notable_alumni_indies.html|title=Notable Alumni – The Independents|work=Admission|publisher=Reed College|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070813115635/http://web.reed.edu/apply/about_reed/notable_alumni/notable_alumni_indies.html|archivedate=2007-08-13|url-status=dead|accessdate=2007-12-18}}
- Pamela Ronald, 1982 – geneticist and developer of flood-tolerant rice
- Larry Sanger, 1991 – co-founder of Wikipedia
- Luke Kanies, 1996 – created Puppet software system{{Cite web|url=https://www.reed.edu/reed-magazine/articles/2014/life-beyond-reed-taggart-kanies.html|title=Life Beyond Reed|website=Reed Magazine|language=en-us|access-date=2019-06-25}}
=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{{cite web|url=https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2017/05/taliesin_myrddin_namkai_meche.html|title=Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche's friends: 'He's just the best person'|first=Eder|last=Campuzano|date=28 May 2017|website=oregonlive.com}}
- 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{{Cite web |date=2000-11-03 |title=BRIGHTON TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION |url=https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1029140/000103883801000159/0001038838-01-000159-0001.txt |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20181111235331/https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1029140/000103883801000159/0001038838-01-000159-0001.txt#selection-9.129-9.163 |archive-date=2018-11-11 |access-date=2024-05-25 |website=U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission}}
- 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{{cite news |last1=Campuzano |first1=Eder |title=Paul Bragdon, longest serving Reed College president and fixture of Oregon higher ed, dies at 94 |url=https://www.oregonlive.com/education/2021/08/paul-bragdon-longest-serving-reed-college-president-and-fixture-of-oregon-higher-ed-dies-at-94.html |access-date=August 10, 2021 |work=The Oregonian |date=August 8, 2021}}