Stanley Foster Reed

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Stanley Foster Reed

Born	September 28, 1917 Bogota, New Jersey
Died	October 25, 2007
Occupation	Entrepreneur, Inventor, Publisher

Stanley Foster Reed was an entrepreneur, inventor, and publisher who founded Reed Research Inc. in 1940, “Mergers & Acquisitions” journal in 1965, and “Campaigns & Elections” magazine in 1980.

Born in Bogota, New Jersey on September 28, 1917, Reed grew up in Hartsdale and White Plains, New York. Buoyed by an entrepreneurial spirit, he forewent a formal post-high school education until his 60s to start a roofing company, working briefly at a sheet metal factory for Pittsburgh Steel as well. In 1940, at age 23, armed with engineering principles learned on the job, he started up a scientific research company, renting a two-story building next to a junk yard along the C & O canal in Georgetown [1].

Reed, who was known as a mergers pioneer and expert in the 60s and 70s, also started the publications “Directors & Boards” and “Export Today.” He was the author of several books, including the best-selling tome, “The Art of M & A,” which he co-authored with his daughter, Alexandra Lajoux, and “The Toxic Executive,” a candid look at difficult bosses.^[1]

He built Reed Research, Inc., and the Reed Research Foundation over the next 20 years to a net worth of $1 million, employing a variety of scientists from the U.S. and those fleeing Europe and Asia troubled by the rise of Fascism and the outbreak of World War II. Along with Manley St. Denis, Johann Martinek, Gordon Yeh, James Ahlgren and others, he helped pioneer scientific research on a variety of issues ranging from safe land mine removal to electrocardiography to language learning laboratories, obtaining scores of patents in the process. Based on his work experience, he was admitted to membership in the Society of Naval Architects and received certification as a Professional Engineer (P.E.) [2].

In 1962, after selling Reed Research to Log-Etronics, Inc., he started Tech-Audit as well as the Reed Research Institute for Creative Studies in the RCA Building on K Street in Washington, where he ran a number of publishing businesses. In the 1960s, he was actively involved in social issues, sponsoring programs to encourage inner-city entrepreneurship and writing a landmark article on the poor of Appalachia. He also participated as a panelist in seminars of the Aspen Institute and as a guest lecturer at various universities including the University of Colorado’s World Affairs Conference and Georgetown University, where he once discussed ethics alongside Father William Byron, SJ. He counted as friends such luminaries as architect Buckminster Fuller and sculptor Louise Nevelson, among many other fellow creatives. Reed consulted for global businesses, including Allied Chemical, Gillette, Schering Plough, and Seiko and served as a director of several companies, including the St. Louis-based Intrav, which awarded him a trip with his family to Hong Kong and Tokyo after he successfully predicted movements of the Yen. While in Japan, he climbed Mount Fuji with his youngest daughter. His numerous professional accomplishments are detailed in Marquis Who’s Who. He was an “ideas man” who in addition to starting publications also started a mergers newsletter and a website in his later years [3].

The third son of Beryl and Morton Reed, he was one of seven siblings who grew up in the Depression era and were instilled by their mother with an appreciation of poetry, literature, history, and music. His intellectual curiosity and prowess never waned. In the mid-1960s, he read the entire collection of Will and Ariel Durant’s History of Civilization cover to cover. He would draw examples from its pages for the rest of his life. Other favorite books included Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy” and Gustave Flaubert’s “Bouvard et Pecuchet”. He composed music by ear and often turned his hand to poetry. At the time of death he was composing an opera based in Paris and focusing on the lives of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Heming. Also in the 1970s, he finally took time to attend college, earning an MBA from Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland at the age of 64[4].

A born musician, Reed sang tenor and played the piano, organ, guitar, banjo, ukulele and accordion by ear at family gatherings. He loved musical comedies, and once said that he would have traded every accomplishment of his life to have written his favorite musical “Carousel” by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. He also was an enthusiastic host and gourmet cook with hundreds of recipes, ranging from handmade corn tortillas to chocolate soufflés. With his son-in-law Bernard Lajoux, he bought a French restaurant in Philadelphia, Pa., which they renamed La Peche d’Argent and later sold to Le Bec Fin. He had moved to that city after selling two of his publications to Hay Associates, where he worked as a consultant in the early 1980s.[5]

In his heyday, Reed made his way onto the “A” list for local social events, and was listed in two Washington, D.C. social registers – the Green Book and the Blue Book. He never owned a boat, but was an avid sailor and proud member of the New York Yacht Club. He was an active member of the Tastevin society for wine tasting, and co-founded the International Club of Washington as a social club where people of all races and religions would be welcome.

Known for his storytelling and his earthy sense of humor, he could assume a variety of accents, ranging from Cockney to Russian, and was conversant in several foreign languages, including French, Spanish and German.

Reed lived in McLean, Virginia, for 40 years. In 1994, he moved to Charleston, S.C. to take a position as the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the College of Charleston, where he taught advanced management courses. Although not a religious man himself, he was a regular organist for the Church of the Nazarenes while residing in Charleston. He also lived in Annapolis, Md., and before entering the University of Virginia Medical Center, lived in Culpeper, Va. on October 25, 2007 in Charlottesville, Va., he died at the University of Virginia Medical Center of a subdural hematoma. He was 90.^[2]

[edit] Sources

Wolfe, J. (2007). "Press Release Written for Obits.", Academic Press.
Bernstein, Adam. "Stanley Reed, 90; Helped Create Niche Magazines", The Washington Post, October 30, 2007. Accessed October 31, 2007.