In loving memory of Joe Reed
Thank you for coming to Joe Reed's tribute page. Alzheimer's LA was very helpful to Joe when we encountered a hospital unfamiliar with dementia while he was being treated for pneumonia. Lacking in simple protocols, communication with the hospital became difficult. Alzheimer's LA offered to reach out to the nursing staff there to help educate staff and help create protocols for the treatment of patients with dementia.
Joe was a brilliant professor and artist, a deeply loyal friend, a fierce champion of colleagues whom he knew were brilliant, but were being discriminated against for their race, sex, or sexual orientation.
Joe started as an English Professor at Wesleyan University in Middletown Connecticut in 1960 and went on to found the film program there with John Frazer. The program thrived under his tutelage and with the staff he went on to hire. Dozens of filmmakers you've heard of went through his classes and learned to read, understand, and create their own film narrative. He started the Film Archive at Wesleyan University and brought Frank Capra's papers to the school as well as those of Raoul Walsh and others. He went on to Chair the American Studies department. His pedagogy was always student-focused, he let them teach him as much as he brought to them. His classrooms were a kinetic space where ideas flew around, grew, and new ideas emerged. One Faulkner class yielded projects, board games, pie, and an enormous coffin where the student asked fellow students to drill holes in the top with a hand drill.
Joe's classes were usually punctuated by his uproarious laughter. He was also a chairman of the trustees of the Yale Library Associates, managing and acquiring numerous papers and organized exhibits for the Beinecke Library. Kate's greatest memory of this is his taking her to the rare book collection in the center of the library, stepping into the glass case, and as the door closed behind them, he said "Don't light a match! or PSSSSH! All of the air will get sucked out of here and you'll die like in space."
Dad was the first in his family to go to a four-year college and received a BA in English from Yale, which he earned through scholarships and ROTC. Then, he earned his Ph.D. in English from Yale as well with grants, ROTC, and our mom's salary as a reporter helped him through that phase. He was then recruited by Wesleyan in 1960.
He was bombastic and big-hearted, noisy, and hilarious and always, even in the hospital, extremely funny. Our mother was his unflagging caretaker for several years until he moved into assisted living. All along the way, we have learned how valuable services like Alzheimer's LA are to local families. And for those who can't afford assisted living, Alzheimer's LA is there with resources and support for full-time caretakers. They are doing real work, down on the ground to help educate people, hospitals, emergency staff and other professionals about how to better help Alzheimer's patients who come their way.
As mentioned above, Alzheimer's LA has helped us personally by working with the staff of Verdugo Hills Hospital on creating a protocol for patients with dementia where none existed. Any little bit will help them.
Despite the ugliness of Alzheimer's, we lucked out with Dad. He knew us, would talk to us, and laugh with us. May our sense of humor always be the last thing to leave.
-The Reed Family