Loren Reid

Loren D. Reid (August 26, 1905 – December 25, 2014) was a communication professor and a writer. In addition to shorter terms of service with other universities, he had a 31-year career at the University of Missouri, including two terms as chair of the Department of Communication. He served in a number of professional organizations related to speech and communicating, including standing as the 43rd president of the National Communication Association. As a youth, Reid worked at his father's paper, both operating the linotype machine and writing up his interviews with travelers. After his parents took over the Osceola, Iowa paper Tribune in 1921, they relocated. Reid graduated from Osceola High School in 1922 and entered Grinell College, receiving degrees in history and English in 1927. While there, he met Augusta "Gus" Towner who would later become his wife and herself a professor, of English. Towne and Reid wed in 1930, during their studies at the University of Iowa. In 1932, Reid graduated from UoI with one of the first doctoral degrees awarded in the field of speech in the United States. The UoM also remembers Reid in a number of academic awards named for him, including the Loren Reid Outstanding Senior Award for Department Service and Leadership and the Loren Reid Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award.