Sometimes I run across tidbits related to Reed College history. Pending a genuine narrative Reed history page, I will put notes here.

The Eliot-Irving Fisher Connection 

The famous economist, Irving Fisher, was in 1882-1884 a classmate of William Greenleaf (Will) Eliot, Jr. at the Smith Academy Advanced Preparatory Scientific School of St. Louis, Missouri, founded by his father, Thomas Lamb Eliot. The young Eliot became a Unitarian minister in Portland, Oregon, and an initial honorary trustee of Reed College, as well as a lifetime friend and correspondent of Irving Fisher. Fisher's father, George Whitefield Fisher, was also a pastor in Missouri at this time.

[Source: Allen, RL. Irving Fisher: A Biography, Blackwell, 1993]

Irving Fisher Speaks at Reed 

Fisher spoke at Reed College in October 1917 on the subject of "Can the Purchasing Power of the Dollar be Controlled", so presumably William T Foster, several years before he embarked on his own study of economics, was exposed to a point of view which he would later expouse and publicize. Fisher also spoke to Will Eliot's church on the subject of "Health and Religion".

[Source: Allen, RL. Irving Fisher: A Biography, Blackwell, 1993]

Clara Eliot's contribution to economics

Will Eliot's daughter Clara would graduate from Reed College in 1917. Her senior thesis in sociology was entitled, "A statistical study of marriage, birth rates, and their connection with manufacturing." This sounds like WF Ogburn, then on the Reed faculty who would go on to a distinguished academic career elsewhere. Clara Eliot would earn a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University. Her thesis, also published as a book was entitled, "The farmer's campaign for credit." Her mentor at Columbia was H. Parker Willis, a man Irving Fisher rated in 1936 as "a technician but not a sound thinker", and thus he advised Roosevelt he was "To be Avoided" as a potential appointee to the reorganized Federal Reserve Board of 1936.

New Biography of Reed Architect, A. E. Doyle

From the Seatlle Times November 20, 2008:

"Beauty of the City: A.E. Doyle, Portland's Architect" by Philip Niles (Oregon State University Press, $29.95). A biography of the man who designed many of the architectural icons of Portland, including the Central Library, Reed College and the Meier & Frank building. Niles is a professor emeritus of history at Carleton College.

On Honoring the Principle 

I'm not sure what the intended meaning is. I intend to stick to the Truth principle here, to the best of my ability. I can't be concerned the effect on the comfort of potential readers of anything I might say here.