Uncategorized – The Riffin' Griffin

Historical Hijinks

Wacky hijinks and antics are part of the Reedie lifestyle. I’ve heard rumors that in the 70s, the Yale Insider’s Guide to Colleges said, “Reedies are a strange lot and they know it.” Pranks, goofs, and straight-up oddity has often been a part of the Reed ethos for eons, but many of the April Fool’s Day pranks rule them all: toothbrush gardens, swiped owls, and geodesic domes in Eliot Circle.

These photos from ye Olde Reed highlight Reedie antics perfectly…but now that I’m thinking about it, what prompted these photos/events? No seriously, does anyone know??

Confused and intrigued,

Taliah Churchill ’25

Pi Day Comes Full Circle

The symbol π, as every Reedie knows, represents a fundamental geometrical constant—the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter—whose precise value is elusive, but which famously begins 3.14159. π has become a delightful excuse to celebrate in the spring with pizza, pie, and Euclidean tomfoolery–on March 14th, Pi Day.

Of course a holiday like Pi Day would take off at Reed! An excuse to eat Lauretta Jean’s pie, grab a slice from Commons, and argue about the validity of mathematical concepts fits right in with the Reed ethos. Folks around campus jump in–the Library historically went all out, and one could not even dip into any of the Pi Day pies until exactly 1:59 in the afternoon; pies might be found in any number of offices in Eliot; and the SU is often filled with students competing to recite the most digits.

What many don’t know is that Pi Day itself can be traced back to Reed as well, through Larry Shaw ’61. Larry was a physics major at Reed, before going on to be the technical curator for the Exploratorium, a science museum in San Francisco. In 1988, he came up with the idea of honoring the influential constant with an annual party. The Exploratorium celebrated its first Pi Day on March 14 at 1:59 p.m.

Larry believed the best part of Pi Day was its ability to make math seem accessible and fun to folks who may have suffered through it during their school days. He was honored that it became such a national holiday. π may be an irrational number, but Larry’s celebration of it was rational, civil, and orderly.

For 38 years, he donned his red cap emblazoned with the magic digits and led a parade of museumgoers, each of them holding a sign bearing one of the digits of π. They would march in strict order, with 3 in front, the decimal point next, and then 141592653489 . . . Of course the number of sign carriers was exhausted long before the infinite digits of pi.

Larry passed away in 2017, but his memory lives on as we celebrate the holiday. Rest assured, Larry condoned all varieties of pie; per his wife, “He didn’t have a favorite, he ate everything.” Grab a slice of your favorite and join us today in toasting Larry and π.

Larry Shaw ’61, with his Pi shirt and cap

Love Is In The Air

‘Tis the season…of love! Many a couple has been formed at Reed college, and while not all of them make it out of the bubble intact, there are still so many others with tales sure to make even the most cynical Reedie’s heart melt.

This Valentine’s Day I want to share with you the story of (to my knowledge) the oldest living Reed couple, Eva Labby ’51 and Arnold Labby ’51. Arnold recently celebrated his 100th birthday with his wife of 67 years, Eva, in their lovely home just outside of Portland and near their mutual alma mater: Reed College.

Arnold and Eva on vacation in the French Marquesas in 2006

For an oral history project with the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, Arnold recounts their first date: “…my brother Bob had a blind date with Lorie, his wife, Lorie Carrow. She wasn’t quite sure about him…So she brought along Eva, and the next thing I knew Bob was yelling up the stairs to me, “Get dressed! You’re going out.” “Who am I going out with?” “You’ll find out when you come down.” It was Eva, and that’s how we met.”

While they attended Reed at the same time, and even went on that date before they both graduated, they didn’t really get together until years later, when they reconnected in San Francisco.

In San Francisco, they were only “buddies” at first, as Eva called it. One day, Arnold mentioned he was going back up to Portland to visit family and offered Eva a ride if she wanted to come along. She ended up forgetting about his offer….until the next morning, when he showed up at her door with a pot of hot coffee. He told her “If you want to go, I’ll wait,” and that he did. They drove to Portland together and later in the week even attended the same party. On the way back down to San Francisco, Eva realized she suddenly saw Arnold in a new light.

Some time later, after a night in with a home cooked dinner, the pair was watching The Maltese Falcon and Arnold proposed! Three days later, Eva accepted, and the rest is history. The happy couple has since spent the last 6 and a half decades together, with their three children.

You can read more about these sweethearts and others here in the Winter 2007 edition of the Reed Magazine.

Are you a #Reedie4Reedies person? Refuse to ever date another Reedie? Married four times but just keep coming back to other Reedies? Tell me about it and give me hope?

Awaiting my reed romance,

Taliah Churchill ’25

Riffin’ Griffin Returns

The Riffin’ Griffin is SO back; did you miss us? After a many year hiatus, there’s much to catch up on, and while blogs may not be as hip and happening as they were when I was on Tumblr 10 years ago, I think it’s prime time they came back. This blog was created back in 2010 to serve as a home for news and announcements, multimedia offerings, and observations from our staff and colleagues. We’re proud to announce that in addition to all the classics, the new and improved Riffin’ Griffin will also include news about your fellow alumni, tales from ye Olde Reed, and whatever else tickles our nostalgia bone! We hope you’ll join us on our journey down memory lane and maybe even rekindle some friendships along the way.

To give you a glance at the disembodied voice behind the screen, I’m Taliah, a current senior and the Alumni Relations student assistant! I’ll be posting a lot of the content for this blog (other staff members may also blog from time to time), and hopefully in a few weeks you all will have the opportunity to submit posts too! We’re working on an easy to fill out form so that if you have any stories about Reed or otherwise Reedie related content you can submit it to us and we can post it on the blog.

TTYL,
The New Riffin’ Griffin Editor
Taliah Churchill ’25

Party at PIE to toast Reed Switchboard

Time flies when you’re incubating a fabulous idea! You may recall that last summer Reed Switchboard, the networking site created to share Reed love, was given a boost by Wieden & Kennedy as part of the ad firm’s Portland Incubator Experiment (PIE). The brainchild of Mara Zepeda ’02 and Sean Lerner ’10, Switchboard was one of only seven tech start-ups selected for this collaboration with tech entrepreneurs; it was given $20,000 in seed money, office space at Wieden+Kennedy, and three months of hands on mentorship from past PIE winners. Since then Switchboard has further polished its business plan and signed up Reed College as its first client!

To celebrate all of this growth and innovation, we invite you to an open house at the Switchboard pad within Wieden+Kennedy in Portland’s Pearl District:

Thursday, February 20, 6 – 8 p.m.
Wieden+Kennedy, 224 NW 13th Ave.
Note: Please enter on NW 12th, just north of Davis

RSVP to alumni@reed.edu.

We heart Reed Switchboard

This season of fresh starts and affectionate missives is the perfect time to announce our exciting new partnership with Reed Switchboard—an online forum for Reedies to connect with one another about jobs, housing, and other goods and services. Like Craigslist (but especially for Reedies), on Switchboard you can ask for what you need and offer what you have to give.

We are fortunate to have a student worker who serves as a public face and a wonderful advocate for Reed Switchboard. I am pleased to introduce our community manager, Kaori Frieda ’15, and share the announcement in her own words.

—Mike Teskey, director, alumni & parent relations

Kaori_Orientation_382

I’m Kaori Freda ‘15, a junior art major who loves Reed College. I’m writing to announce Reed’s official partnership with Switchboard.

If you haven’t heard of it: Switchboard is a networking site created by Reedies. It is a place where Reedies can ask for what they need, and offer what they have to give; examples include jobs, internships, mentorship, advice, places to stay in cities around the world, and even a chance to sail the Mediterranean. Students, alumni, staff, faculty, parents, and friends connect there to find opportunities and meet each other’s needs.

Alumni and students have logged countless success stories, from finding jobs at the World Health Organization to finding hosts in New York and San Francisco. Take me, for example. Through Switchboard, Mara ‘02 and Andrew ‘02 hosted me in Florence, Italy. Then they connected me with an internship with Harvard in Italy. These connections happen every day through Switchboard. Reedies share a special connection and as alumni, you have much to offer and ask of the Reed community.

Let me be the first to personally invite you to use Switchboard: post your own ask or offer, browse the site for opportunities, and see the successful connections being made by Reedies around the globe. On Switchboard you can help a Reedie out and strengthen what we mean when we say “Love Reed.” We have almost 1,000 posts, and more are added every day.

I look forward to sending you the occasional update, and watching the Reed community flourish and support one another on this new platform.

Warmest wishes,

Kaori Freda ‘15 and Alumni & Parent Relations

P.S. Mark your calendars for an open house celebrating this union on Thursday, February 20, 6-8 p.m. at the offices of Wieden+Kennedy in Portland’s Pearl District!

Thomas Lamb Eliot Award

What do Richard Danzig ’65, Barbara Ehrenreich ’63, and Gary Snyder ’51 have in common (other than being Reed College alumni)? They are the first three honorees of the college’s Thomas Lamb Eliot award (Danzig was the first recipient in 2011). Who will be the fourth? Help us grow the pool of potential recipients by nominating a worthy graduate.

Officially, the award is called the Thomas Lamb Eliot Award for Lifetime Achievement by a Reed College Graduate. Here are the criteria:

Achievement: The awardee should have achieved distinction in one or more fields of endeavor. That distinction should be based on the quality and importance of his or her contributions to those fields or to society. The awardee’s record of achievement should be both intrinsically impressive and importantly consequential for the world. Popular fame is not necessary, but recognition by experts in one’s field is necessary.
Record of achievement: The awardee should have produced a record of achievement over a sustained period. A single achievement, no matter how impressive, is unlikely to be enough to merit a nomination.
Exemplifies Reed values: In addition to the distinction of the awardee and the quality of his or her record of achievement, it is important that the awardee exemplify qualities that valued by the college, including intellectual rigor, independence, and integrity.

Each year, the past presidents of the alumni association provide the college with a list of names for the college to consider, and then a panel of faculty and staff forwards a recommendation to the president and the board of trustees.

We seek names and are open to nominations for this year until March 15. Nominations stay in the pool for consideration in subsequent years, so even if you miss this deadline, please consider submitting a name to alumni@reed.edu.

Reed Offspring at Orientation

New Reedies with alumni parents (or other relatives) qualify as members of a prestigious organization fondly referred to as O.R.G.Y (Offspring of Reed Generations of Yesteryear). They, along with family members, were invited to join other Reed legacies for a group photo on Wednesday, August 22. Gorgeous weather graced this photo shoot on the chapel steps, and everyone received an O.R.G.Y button to wear proudly!

Here’s a picture of some Reed alumni and their excited/nervous/non-plussed Reedie progeny (future alumni!).

Left to right (back): Jazz Weisman, Anthony Leong, Rose Gittel, Jody Hoffer-Gittel ’85, Galen Blair, Kurt Blair ’92; (middle) Joe Weisman ’65, Keith Allen ’83, Sarah Allen, Darryl Leong ’72, Ruben de la Huerga, Lafcadio Flint, Maria Blair ’91, Gavin Flint ’82; (front) Anne Gendler ’81, Naomi Gendler, Sandra Moffet ’79, Millie Dunn, Corinna Jackson, Holly Hurwitz ’79.

Continue reading Reed Offspring at Orientation

The great griffin float emerges!

Dearest Comrades:

I have always wanted to write one of these letters, and they're finally letting me! And yes, it has been censored so you will have to use your decoders to get the real message. Reedfayre '12 (the event formally known as Reunions) is upon us, and there is a special treat for all: the griffin float! If you haven't heard already, Reed is entering a float in the Portland Rose Festival's Grand Floral Parade. All of the floats have traditionally been built by one company, but of course as Reedies we wanted to build our own.

I have been privileged to work with the group of "local" Reedies (for whom the apple didn't land far from the tree), and we have been working on it for a while now. It is pretty awesome. The fun never stops! I promise anyone who shows up to lend a hand a ride around campus. There will be fun and games, food and drink, and a late night viewing of Animal House while sitting on the float. The Rose Festival parade is the weekend after Reedfayre, and I would like to encourage everyone to stay the week, help decorate the float with flowers and come cheer or participate in the parade on Saturday, June 9.

It has been a fabulous time building this amazing vehicle, please come back for a ride down memory lane!* I know it is getting close, but if you are at all able to return for Reedfayre, this will be a most memorable experience, I assure you.

Sincerely looking forwards to a fabulous weekend,

–Rob Mack '93

*See one of Rob's earliest conveyances, the MOSPUD, as well as other creations from Renn Fayres past.

Reed’s Rose Festival Float

With Reed students’ propensity for recombinant construction and conveyance, it is no surprise that the college entered a float in Portland’s Rose Festival Parade as early as 1936. While the details are murky, we have this one photo, as well as this plaque commemorating Reed’s third-place “prize” position.

Fast forward to 2012, the close of our centennial year, and a merry band of intrepid engineers is hard at work on an automated griffin for the new century! Rob Mack ’93 and Mike Teskey, director of alumni relations, have led the effort to craft a unique float to roll in Portland’s 100th Grand Floral Parade on Saturday, June 9.

Assisted by Zac Perry, canyon restoration specialist, Ben Lund ’93 from mail services, Dan Schafer ’92, Martha Richards ’92, Lars Fjelstad ’92, and other alumni, this group of volunteers has been hammering out the creation over the past several weeks. See Dan’s photos, as well as this artist’s rendering that serves as inspiration and imagine a griffin that can flap its wings (and possibly more!).

An early model got a test run at Renn Fayre, delivering the Reed Meat Smoke victuals to the feast! There is yet more work to be done, and we welcome help from all members of the Reed community. Stay tuned for a decorating sign-up sheet to be available soon; we’ll begin the beautification process at Reunions ’12: Reedfayre, so sign up today!