Deceased January 27, 2008
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Richard C. "Dick" Reed
Dick stayed rooted in his native Brockton, MA, where he prospered as an attorney and became a leading citizen. A “rewarding albeit confining experience,” as he put it, but “I wouldn’t have it otherwise.”
He and wife Jean Jenkins (Wellesley ’38) traveled widely in Europe and the Far East after he wound down his practice and took time “to smell the flowers,” he said in our 50th Reunion book. He was also a golfer and liked to sail in New Bedford’s Buzzards Bay.
Then his wife died in 2002, and his health slowly declined. He died of pneumonia January 27, 2008, in a nursing home in Chester, CT, where he was being treated for a form of Alzheimer’s, a son, Robert, said in a phone interview. He was ninety-one.
Robert called him “an excellent lawyer and a very nice guy.” He prepared for college at Thayer Academy, majored in history, and belonged to Chi Phi fraternity. As an alumnus, he kept warm ties with Amherst, exemplified by his 55th Reunion button tacked to a door.
With a Harvard law degree, he joined his father and two other men in their practice. Married in 1940, he became “a guest of Uncle Sam” during WWII, serving in the US Coast Guard.
He summed up his civic career in this paragraph:
“Five or six years on city planning board; twenty-five years (including three as president) of the Brockton Hospital; twenty-five years (including five as president) of YMCA; and ten on Family Service Board.”
He was also an active member of the Congregational church.
Besides son Robert of Wareham, MA, he leaves another son, Bradford, of Jacksonville, FL, a daughter, Anne R. McCulley of Chester, six grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
George Bria ’38