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Director of the Reed Nuclear Reactor From 1973 to 1980

Larry Church [chemistry ’73–80]

July 20, 2024.

Professor Larry Church, best known to Reedies as the director of the nuclear reactor, spent his childhood in Tenafly, New Jersey, and Rochester, New York, where he attended the University of Rochester for his bachelor’s degree. While there, he met Nancy, who would become his wife of 54 years.

A lifelong lover of science, Church pursued his PhD in nuclear chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University. He taught at SUNY Buffalo for a period before moving to Portland to join the faculty at Reed, where he taught chemistry and served as the director of the reactor from 1973 to 1980.

Church transitioned to a role at Tektronix and eventually retired from the Oregon Center for Advanced Technology Education. After Nancy passed, Church moved to Lake Oswego, where he met Louise Wilson. The two married in 2023 on the banks of the White Salmon River.

Church is survived by Louise and his sons, Scott and Matt.

Appeared in Reed magazine: Spring 2025

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