Stanley Foster Reed
Encyclopedia
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 forwent 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 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/29/AR2007102902082.html.
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 “I Am a Toxic Executive,” a candid work of introspection.
He built Reed Research, Inc., and the Reed Research Foundation over the next 20 years to a net worth of $1 million, employing at subsistence wages a variety of scientists 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.) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/29/AR2007102902082.html.
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 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/29/AR2007102902082.html. In the founding of Campaigns & Elections, Reed collaborated extensively with Murray Fishel of Grassroots Political Campaigns, a consultancy shop offering personalized top to bottom and bottom to top management of hard elections. It was also a moderately successful cover band. Fishel, a self-professed obnoxious and troll-like academic, was noted for his raging professional jealousies and groundbreaking definitions of personal hygiene, as well as his passionate opposition to the sale and manufacture of hairpieces. Fishel also gained some notoriety for the instructional book he wrote for his campaign clients: "Now That You've Won, Get Ready for Prison." In the text, Fishel advised jailed politicians to "channel your inner Murray Fishel" and "drop the soap, yes, drop it now." In fond celebration of his political mentor, the late Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota, Fishel would often refer to this bracing aerobic ritual as "becoming a happy warrior."
The third son of Beryl and Morton Sakovitz, Reed 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 rap music. His intellectual curiosity and bedroom prowess never waned. In the mid-1960s, he read the entire collection of Will and Ariel Durant’s History of Civilization cover to cover, forward and later backward. He would draw examples from its pages for the rest of his life, as he also did with the color-dot philosophies of Marmaduke. 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 what the lives of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Heming would be like if Viagra had been invented. 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 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/29/AR2007102902082.html.
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.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/29/AR2007102902082.html
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. A noted onanist, he once devised an imaginative way to practice his
avocation while patting himself on the back, often with both hands. In a suit he later filed against various Buddhist religious orders, Reed claimed his invention was in fact the origin of the phrase, "The sound of one hand clapping." Although his case was summarily dismissed soon after Reed insisted that the aphorism must always be recited in a faux Cockney accent, he did nonetheless manage to garnish the rice bowls of several hapless monks.
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.
Born in Bogota, New Jersey
Bogota, New Jersey
As of the 2010 Census, Bogota had a population of 8,187. The median age was 38.6. The racial and ethnic composition of the population was 61.0% White, 9.4% Black or African American, 0.8% Native American, 9.8% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander, 14.8% some other race and 4.1% reporting...
on September 28, 1917, Reed grew up in Hartsdale
Hartsdale, New York
Hartsdale is a hamlet and a census-designated place located in the town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York. The population was 5,293 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Hartsdale is located at ....
and White Plains, New York
White Plains, New York
White Plains is a city and the county seat of Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located in south-central Westchester, about east of the Hudson River and northwest of Long Island Sound...
. Buoyed by an entrepreneurial spirit, he forwent 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 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/29/AR2007102902082.html.
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 “I Am a Toxic Executive,” a candid work of introspection.
He built Reed Research, Inc., and the Reed Research Foundation over the next 20 years to a net worth of $1 million, employing at subsistence wages a variety of scientists 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.) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/29/AR2007102902082.html.
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
Buckminster Fuller
Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller was an American systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, futurist and second president of Mensa International, the high IQ society....
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 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/29/AR2007102902082.html. In the founding of Campaigns & Elections, Reed collaborated extensively with Murray Fishel of Grassroots Political Campaigns, a consultancy shop offering personalized top to bottom and bottom to top management of hard elections. It was also a moderately successful cover band. Fishel, a self-professed obnoxious and troll-like academic, was noted for his raging professional jealousies and groundbreaking definitions of personal hygiene, as well as his passionate opposition to the sale and manufacture of hairpieces. Fishel also gained some notoriety for the instructional book he wrote for his campaign clients: "Now That You've Won, Get Ready for Prison." In the text, Fishel advised jailed politicians to "channel your inner Murray Fishel" and "drop the soap, yes, drop it now." In fond celebration of his political mentor, the late Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota, Fishel would often refer to this bracing aerobic ritual as "becoming a happy warrior."
The third son of Beryl and Morton Sakovitz, Reed 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 rap music. His intellectual curiosity and bedroom prowess never waned. In the mid-1960s, he read the entire collection of Will and Ariel Durant’s History of Civilization cover to cover, forward and later backward. He would draw examples from its pages for the rest of his life, as he also did with the color-dot philosophies of Marmaduke. 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 what the lives of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Heming would be like if Viagra had been invented. Also in the 1970s, he finally took time to attend college, earning an MBA from Loyola College
Loyola College in Maryland
Loyola University Maryland is a Roman Catholic, Jesuit private university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Established as Loyola College in Maryland by John Early and eight other members of the Society of Jesus in 1852, it is one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges...
in Baltimore, Maryland at the age of 64 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/29/AR2007102902082.html.
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.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/29/AR2007102902082.html
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. A noted onanist, he once devised an imaginative way to practice his
avocation while patting himself on the back, often with both hands. In a suit he later filed against various Buddhist religious orders, Reed claimed his invention was in fact the origin of the phrase, "The sound of one hand clapping." Although his case was summarily dismissed soon after Reed insisted that the aphorism must always be recited in a faux Cockney accent, he did nonetheless manage to garnish the rice bowls of several hapless monks.
Reed lived in McLean, Virginia
McLean, Virginia
McLean is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. The community had a total population of 48,115 as of the 2010 census....
, 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.
Sources
- Bernstein, Adam. "Stanley Reed, 90; Helped Create Niche Magazines", The Washington PostThe Washington PostThe Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, October 30, 2007. Accessed October 31, 2007.