Colonel Raymond T. Reid ’45 died on October 8, 2011, in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
He was born in New Haven on June 7, 1921, and prepared for college at New Haven High School and Hopkins Grammar School. He attended Bowdoin from 1941 to February 1943, a member of Delta Upsilon fraternity, when he left to serve in the Army during World War II. He served in Africa, Italy, France, and Germany over 27 months. After the war, he was stationed in Venezuela as the air defense advisor to the Venezuelan Army, then as the operations officer of a field artillery unit during the Korean War. He attended the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth and went on to complete several tours in the Pentagon, serving in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Personnel. He later served in Italy as the operations officer for the 1st Missile Command and in the European Command Airborne Command Post in France. He returned to the United States to serve as the commander of an artillery battalion at Fort Hood, Texas, then went back to the Pentagon as executive officer in the Office of the Chief of Information. In 1970, he served a tour of duty in Vietnam, then finished his 31-year career at the Pentagon. While in the military, he earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Maryland, European Division. He was awarded the Legion of Merit with two Oak Leaf Clusters. After retiring from the military, he served for 25 years as chief of staff to Arkansas Congressman John Paul Hammerschmidt, Tim Hutcherson, and Asa Hutchinson. The Arkansas news service dubbed him the “5th Congressman from Arkansas.” After retiring, he did consulting work on financing for major highways in Arkansas. He is survived by Jean Frinks Reid, his wife of 51 years; three daughters, Barbara Reid Gilbert, Karen Reid Mortimer, and Beth Ann Reid Lawson; a son, Barry Reid; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.