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Charles Philip Reed Jr.: Professor & Computing Pioneer

By: Alumni Publications | Categories: In Memoriam

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Charles Philip Reed Jr., EE 50, MS EE 56, of Marietta, Ga., on July 24. Reed was a devoted husband, father, and grandfather. He treated everyone he came in contact with the same and thought someone’s stature in life had nothing to do with their capabilities. He was very proud of all three of his daughters—the engineer, the doctor, and the one that made him laugh. He saw his daughters as capable of anything, and encouraged them to be independent. He enjoyed taking them to swim practice and often coached from the bleachers. He designed a muscle building apparatus out of picnic benches and rubber tubing to mimic the swimming motion. He bought a ball machine when tennis became an interest and set it up in the basement. He always 
pushed them to be better. 

He loved musicals, Georgia Tech football, playing the guitar, golf, raising bird dogs, singing in the choir at The Church of the Atonement, spending time with his sisters-in-law and brothers-in-law and the dinner club of 40 years. He joined the naval aviation division of the Navy at 17 and was upset that he never got to pilot a plane as the war ended. He entered Georgia Tech in 1946 on the G.I. Bill and discovered his love for mathematics and electrical engineering and earned a master’s degree in both areas of study. He started his career at IBM in 1950 at a time when a pledge was spoken each morning and all employees wore the same color suit and hat, but he quickly discovered his aversion to conformity and soon went back to Georgia Tech to teach mathematics and was a pioneer in computing and head of the Computing Services department. After 30 years he retired from Georgia Tech and worked at Heery, an architecture firm in Atlanta for eight years where he helped them install an architectural CAD system.

He is survived by wife, Sally Reed; his daughters Alice Reed and Sara Tanner; sons-in law Art Gardner, Bill Haft, and Richard Tanner; grandchildren Geoff and Stuart Gardner, Caroline Dyess, Charlie, James and Katherine Tanner; and many nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his parents, Nellie and Charles Reed Sr., his sister Margaret “Poppy” Whitlock and his beloved daughter Anita Gardner, IE 81. 

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