The Reed Institute (the entity which owns the College) was founded in 1908, and Reed
College held its first classes in 1911. Reed is named for Oregon pioneers Simeon Gannett Reed and Amanda Reed. Simeon had been an entrepreneur
in trade on the Columbia River; in his will he suggested that his wife could "devote some portion of my estate to benevolent
objects, or to the cultivation, illustration, or development of the fine arts in the city of Portland, or to some other suitable
purpose, which shall be of permanent value and contribute to the beauty of the city and to the intelligence, prosperity, and
happiness of the inhabitants."Originally imagined as "the Harvard of the West", Reed College has become one of the nation's pre-eminent
institutions of the liberal arts and sciences.Although holding a well-earned reputation for the anti-authoritarian leanings of its students (and sometimes its faculty), the
only connection between Reed College and the journalist John Reed is the similarity of their names.