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Richard Irving Maddox ’41

March 14, 2018, in the Bay Area, California.

Dick grew up near the University of Portland and attended Reed as a freshman, where his professors provided him with invaluable insight into the emerging European conflicts. He was in the naval reserve and was called up the next year to go to the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering just days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Nine days later, he married Marie Javerliat ’41, a classmate from both Portland’s Clinton Kelly High School of Commerce and Reed. Dick was immediately assigned to duty in the Pacific, serving aboard destroyers throughout the war.

Following his resignation from the Navy in 1946, Dick earned a graduate degree at the California Institute of Technology, and then joined the staff of Standard Oil of California (Chevron) as a research physicist. The Korean War resulted in his recall by the Navy, and he was attached to an East Coast ship. The family moved to homes in Virginia, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C., where Dick was assigned to the Office of Naval Research. In 1954, the family returned to their home in Fullerton, California, where Dick continued his career with Standard Oil. Special assignments with the company moved Dick to Houston for three years, and finally to San Mateo, in the Bay Area.

Responding to an alumni survey, Dick wrote: “After 50+ years, the name Reed evokes feelings of pride, respect, admiration, and affection in a one-year student.” Marie died in 2009. Dick is survived by his daughters, Danielle Ringen and Marya Hughes, and his son, Brian Maddox.

Appeared in Reed magazine: September 2018

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