Prolific Programmer and Transpersonal Psychologist
Jimmse Law Mandl (Jos Lynn Marlowe) ’64
January 22, 2026, in Poulsbo, Washington
Jimmse arrived at Reed in 1960, but left after her sophomore year to earn more tuition money. She worked as a solderer at Tektronix in Beaverton, Oregon, and took classes at Portland State, paying her own way.
After marrying Otto Mandl, a professor at Willamette University, Jimmse returned to Reed and wrote her thesis, “Nabokovian English.” “I tried to do a traditional thesis, but then Page Stegner wrote a book on Nabokov which disgusted me,” Jimmse later reflected. “It was obvious from that moment on that I had to write a ‘Nabokovian’ thesis, part of which ridiculed Page Stegner.” She sent her thesis to Nabokov in Switzerland—and, according to her, he loved it.
In 1973, Jimmse and Otto moved to Palo Alto. Under the name Jos Marlowe, she began a new career in programming, ending up at Sun Microsystems writing about Java. After leaving Sun in 2004, she completed her dissertation, “Quantum Mechanics and Mysticism: An Investigation of Transformative Experience in Matrix Energetics Seminars,” at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (now Sofia University) in Palo Alto, which was cofounded by Robert Frager ’61.
After completing her PhD, Jos worked as a transpersonal psychologist and researcher, primarily in the Seattle area. —Leslie Stewart ’64, Jim Kahan ’64, Mateo Burtch ’82
