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Elbert Dannen ’76

A picture of Elbert Dannen

Elbert Dannen ’76, September 10, 2009, in Portland. El received a BA from Reed in biology and the Class of '21 prize for a creative thesis, "Slug Guts: Peroxisomes in a Pulmonate Gastropod." He did graduate studies in cell and molecular biology at the University of Michigan and also was a research assistant in the cardiology group at Washington University Medical School, before joining the Kobos Company in Portland—a company founded by David Kobos MAT ’66. El was with the company for 16 years; seven as retail operations manager. He later worked for the Clackamas County Department of Transportation, and volunteered at his children's school in Oregon City, where he established the Odyssey of the Mind program. “I have never felt that Reed specifically prepared me for a job,” El wrote. “I do know that my liberal arts education at Reed prepared me for life; it structured my thinking processes, taught me to search for information, and carefully weigh options. It opened my eyes to a panorama of possibilities I otherwise would have never known.” Survivors include his wife, Judy, and a son and daughter.

Appeared in Reed magazine: March 2010

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