19 August 1954

Mr. C. F. Shoop

1501 N. Roosevelt

Pasadena, California

Dear Mr. Shoop:

I feel that, as a member of the Parents' Committee of Reed College, I should write to you about your article "Reed College Named for Reeds," which appeared in the Pasadena Star-News on Sunday, August 15, 1954.

In this article you refer to Reed College as "now considered one of the better institutions of learning in the Northwest." In another article, on the Carmelite Story, which appeared on the same page you refer to Reed College as "one of the better type of schools for higher education in the Northwest."

These statements seem to me to be so cautious as to represent a real deviation from the truth. You could more correctly have described Reed College as "one of the most outstanding schools for higher education in the entire United States."

I shall now give you some of the evidence that justifies the description that I suggest for Reed College.

In 1952 the University of Chicago Press published the book "Origins of American Scientists," a study made under the direction of a committee of the faculty of Wesleyan University by R. H. Knapp and H. B. Goodrich. These investigators selected the eleven years 1924 to 1934 for their study. They considered graduates of different collages and universities in the United States during these eleven years, and counted up the number of the male graduates who had received a Ph.D. degree in science, or had made such an outstanding record as a scientist us to be listed with a star in American Men of Science.

In the list of fifty leading institution in the United States in the production of scientists during these years, Reed College stands first. During these years Reed College produced 131.8 outstanding scientists for every 1000 men graduated.

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Second in the list was the California Institute of Technology, with 70.1 outstanding scientists per 1000 men graduated.

No other California school or northwestern school is in the top twenty institutions in the list. Pomona College is twenty-first.

The question might arise as to whether Reed College has deteriorated since the period 1924 to 1934. Evidence on this point is provided by another book, published in 1953 by the University of Chicago Press. This is "The Younger American Scholar: His Collegiate Origins," by R. H. Knapp and J. J. Greenbaum. In this book the authors report, the results of a study made of graduates during the six-year period 1946 to 1951. The number of graduates, both men and women together, obtaining the Ph.D. degree or some equivalent recognition of achievement in science, social science, or the humanities per 1000 graduates was taken as the criterion.

The topmost institution in the United States in this respect is Swarthmore College. Reed College stands second in the list. The California Institute of Technology is eighth, and Harvard University tenth. The only other western or northwestern institution in the first fifty institutions in the country is Pomona College, which is twenty-fourth.

It is worthy of mention that Reed College is one of only eight institutions in the entire United States to stand in the topmost twenty institutions in science, the topmost twenty in social science, and the topmost twenty in the humanities, separately, in this study.

I should like also to mention the record of Reed College in providing Rhodes Scholars. Frank Aydelotte, for many years American secretary of the Rhodes Trust, in his book "The American Rhodes Scholarships," lists the numbers of Rhodes scholars from different institutions during the first forty years of the Rhodes scholarship scheme. Reed College, with eleven Rhodes scholars during this period, may be compared with the University of California, with thirteen, Swarthmore, with thirteen, and Pomona College, with three.

I think that you will agree with me that you would have been justified in describing Reed College as one of the best institutions of higher learning in the United States.

Sincerely yours,

Linus Pauling

LP:mf