Researching John Reed

Reed supported the Soviet takeover of Russia, even briefly taking up arms to join the Red Guards in 1918. He hoped for a similar Communist revolution in the United States, and co-founded the short-lived Communist Labor Party of America in 1919. He died of in Moscow of spotted typhus in 1920. At the time of his death he may have soured on the Soviet leadership, but he was given a hero's burial by the Soviet Union, and is one of only three Americans buried at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.

The son of a butcher from County Durham, Reed began performing at the end of World War II, joining the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1951. After eight years as understudy to Peter Pratt, he became the principal comedian of the company in 1959, remaining for two decades, playing all the famous Gilbert and Sullivan patter roles, including Sir Joseph in H.M.S. Pinafore, the Major-General in The Pirates of Penzance, Bunthorne in Patience, the Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe, Ko-Ko in The Mikado, Jack Point in The Yeomen of the Guard and the Duke of Plaza Toro in The Gondoliers, among others. He was known for his "fleet-footed clowning", dry and roguish wit, comic timing, "crystal clear diction" in the patter songs, and his amusing character voice, recording all of his principal roles with the company.

In 1979, Reed left the company but continued performing in and directing Gilbert and Sullivan productions in Britain and America, as well as appearing in other light opera. He retired to Halifax, West Yorkshire, directing amateur Gilbert and Sullivan companies and attending the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Buxton for many years.

He was educated at The Hotchkiss School and Yale University. He served as the president of Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, Illinois, from 1984 to 1994. Reed's grandfather was John G. Shedd, founder of the aquarium.

Reed served as president of the Southern Sociological Society in 1988 to 1989 and the Southern Association for Public Opinion Research in 1999 to 2000. He was elected to the Fellowship of Southern Writers in 2000, and was chancellor of that organization from 2009 to 2011. He has lectured at over 300 colleges and universities in the United States and abroad and held visiting positions at over a dozen, including Fulbright lectureships in Israel and India, and the Pitt Professorship of American History and Institutions at Cambridge University.

After his retirement from the University of North Carolina, he held visiting positions at a number of institutions; among other things, he was a visiting fellow at All Souls College, Oxford University and a lieutenant colonel in the South Carolina Unorganized Militia while he was teaching at The Citadel, in Charleston.

Reed has been a Guggenheim Fellow, a Fellow of the National Humanities Center, and (twice) a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He holds honorary doctorates from the University of the South and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and is an Honorary Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge.

Reed married Dale Volberg (1941 – 2018) in 1964. They wrote several books together. They have two daughters.

Reed was the eldest son of George McCullagh Reed, a newspaper proprietor, and Jessie Chalmers Reed (née Ranken). He was born in Ipswich, Queensland, where his father had moved to in 1861 to be the Presbyterian minister. His brother was Vernon Reed. He received his education at Auckland Grammar School, Dunedin High School, Victoria College, Jersey, and Clare College in the University of Cambridge, England. He served his articles with Devore and Cooper in Auckland and was admitted as a barrister in June 1887. He had a practice in the Bay of Islands and relocated to Auckland in early 1896, where he joined William Thorne. In 1898, Reed set up his own practice in Auckland. In 1900, he took James Every Stephen Bailey into a partnership under the banner of Reed and Bailey. In 1912, Roland Perceval Towle joined the partnership, and their practice was known as Reed, Bailey and Towle. Bailey retired at the end of 1919 and two of the staff became partners instead, and the practice was then known as Reed, Towle, Hellaby, and Cooper.

For a time, Reed was president of the Auckland Law Society. Outside of the judiciary, Reed had a strong interest in military matters and in 1911, he was appointed Judge Advocate General of the New Zealand Territorial Forces. In November 1912, Reed was appointed King's Counsel. In February 1921, he was appointed judge to the Supreme Court; this was the first of two appointments triggered by the retirement of Justice Chapman and the resignation of Justice Cooper. He retired from his practice at the end of February 1921 but the name did not change as Reed's son, Mervyn Ranken Reed, carried on as one of the partners. Reed was also a prominent Freemason, serving as the Auckland district grand master for seven years.

Reed was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (military division) in the 1919 King's Birthday Honours. In 1935, he was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal. He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 1936 King's Birthday Honours.

In the 1940s, Reed worked on major Disney productions such as Pinocchio, The Reluctant Dragon, and Bambi. As an assistant effects animator on Fantasia, he was responsible for making fine corrections to the motion of background elements such as fish and seaweed. He was a protegee of artist Hanson Puthuff.

His most notable credit was as animation director for the 1954 film Animal Farm. As one colleague described, "Reed's influence on the animation in Animal Farm was tremendous. He knew exactly the effect he wanted and how to get it."