Edward Cornelius Reed Jr.

Edward Cornelius Reed Jr. (July 8, 1924 – June 1, 2013) was a United States federal judge in the District of Nevada.^[1]

Born in Mason, Nevada,^[2] Judge Reed attended public school in Reno. Reed served in the 86th Infantry Division of the United States Army during World War II, from 1943 to 1946 and was deployed in Europe, achieving the rank of staff sergeant. He was captured by German soldiers and imprisoned during the final year of the war. After the German surrender Judge Reed was transferred to the Philippines along with the rest of 86th Infantry Division which was part of the force planned for the invasion of Japan when the war ended with the Japanese surrender.

After leaving the military, Ed re-enrolled at the University of Nevada. He was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity and received an award his senior year as the top ATO in the country. Ed entered the University of Nevada in the fall of 1942 and played basketball one year at the University of Nevada. He played on the basketball team that defeated nationally ranked St. John's University at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and when the team arrived back in Reno they received a hero's welcome. He also served as a teacher at Northside Junior High and Reno High School from 1948-1949. At Reno High he served as the JV Basketball coach and the Reno High School Tennis Coach. He graduated at the top of his class at Nevada in 1949, and entered Harvard Law School in the fall of 1949.

In 1951, while at Harvard, he fell madly in love with the love of his life, Sally Torrance from Jamestown, New York, who was attending Wellesley College at the time, and the two were married on June 14, 1952 in Jamestown, with Sally's parents and family in attendance. Ed's parents were unable to make the long trip out to New York State from Nevada by train to attend the wedding. He then became a tax attorney for Arthur Andersen & Co., in Boston, Massachusetts, from 1952 to 1953, and was in private legal practice in Reno, Nevada from 1953 to 1979. Reed served as a Special Deputy Attorney General for water rights litigation in Nevada from 1967 to 1979.

In 1979, Reed was nominated by President Jimmy Carter to fill a new judicial seat in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 25, 1979, and received his commission on September 26, 1979. Reed served as Chief Judge for the District of Nevada from 1986 to 1992. He assumed senior status on July 15, 1992 and served until his 2013 death.

References

Sources

• Edward Cornelius Reed Jr. at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.