The summer issue of the Reed magazine illustrated once again why reading about Reedies is a never-ending source of fascination and entertainment. Featured articles described the (then) upcoming centennial and investigations of the paranormal alongside the traditional nod to ancient Greek philosophers. And on top of all that one learned some of the surprising ways in which chemistry has percolated into the lives of students, alumni, faculty, and friends of the College.
“Nuclear Scrounge” (p. 8) described what is “easily the most significant event in the history of [Reed’s nuclear] reactor,” namely, its refueling with 91 uranium fuel rods obtained from the University of Arizona. The fuel had originally been destined for a federal storage depository, but will now live a new half-life powering the Reed reactor for decades to come. “Force Majeure” (p. 27) a profile of Prof. Darius Rejali [political science, 1989-present], revealed that Darius’ father spent 11 years studying chemistry in the United States and earned a doctorate in chemistry from Temple University.
The Class Notes section mentioned at least four Reed chemists … The Oregonian featured Luke Kanies ’96 (Puppet Labs) in an article about Portland’s open software industry … The Union-Bulletin of Walla Walla, Washington described the homecoming of Alison Madsen ’00 and her new medical practice at the Family Medical Center in Walla Walla … and a whole slew of Reed science alums, including Becky Phillips ’10 and Megan Brophy ’10, squeezed together for a photo from the wedding of biologist Molly Schumer ’09 and mathematician Josh O-Rourke ’09.
In Memoriam also notified us of the passing of several Reed chemists and friends of the college. Alan Loren Dean ’41, emeritus trustee, came to Reed “fascinated with inorganic chemistry” and had hoped to become a chemical engineer some day, but graduated in political science instead. As he told an interviewer in 2004, “After taking a year of chemistry at Reed, and getting into a fair amount of organic chemistry, I said, ‘I’m not going to spend my life brooding over these complicated carbon rings.” Well said. Classmate Louis George Stang ’41 apparently found “carbon rings” to his liking because, even though a devotee of the Eliot chapel’s pipe organ, he stayed on course to graduate Phi Beta Kappa in chemistry. From Reed he migrated to Caltech for additional studies before joining the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Robert Oppenheimer, the Project’s director, assigned Louis the job of producing 50 curies of “barium-lanthanum-140” and Oppenheimer’s team then had the hubris to bet “one nickel” that Louis would not succeed. Undeterred, Stang and his team constructed a special laboratory and invented new equipment for preparing and handling the radioactive isotopes. Not surprisingly, the nickel became the Stang family’s most prized possession. The Reed college career of David Petri Pearson ’49 was interrupted by military service in World War II, but he returned to Reed to complete his BA in chemistry and marry his classmate, Patricia M. Cowan ’49. After earning a PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Southern California, Dave had a multifaceted career that included stints as a research chemist at Phillips Petroleum, the Oregon Graduate Center, and Portland General Electric, as well as teaching chemistry at Portland State University and Southern Oregon College.