John Shedd Reed, 90

John Shedd Reed, former chairman and chief executive officer of Santa Fe Industries, died peacefully of natural causes at home surrounded by family on March 16, 2008, in Lake Forest, Illinois. He was 90.

Reed was born in 1917 in Chicago to Kersey Coates and Helen Shedd Reed (later Keith). He was the grandson of John Graves Shedd, second president of Marshall Field & Company, for whom Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium is named. He married Marjorie Lindsay of Winnetka, IL, in 1946.

Reed attended the Chicago Latin School, the Los Alamos Ranch School, and the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut before earning a B.S. in industrial administration at Yale University in 1939 and Advanced Management from Harvard in 1955.

According to family members, Reed knew he wanted to be a locomotive engineer on the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railway from the time he was four years old, having spent many hours on its passenger trains between Chicago and Pasadena to visit his Grandfather Shedd. Reed applied immediately after graduating college in 1939 for a position as an engineer. However, he was told that, “No Yale man could shovel enough coal to get an engine from Chicago to Joliet”, and thus started his career instead with the Santa Fe test department in Topeka, Kansas. In 1941 this career was interrupted when he enlisted in the Navy and attended the V-7 program at Annapolis. He served throughout WWII on the destroyer USS Niblack, and was released in 1946 with the rank of Lieutenant Commander and awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious service.

He returned to the Santa Fe’s Operating Department, working for the railroad in various capacities in Amarillo and Slaton, TX; Pueblo, CO; and Marceline MO, before returning to Lake Forest in 1954. Ultimately he became Chairman and CEO of the Railway and later Santa Fe Industries, coordinating three divisions - railway, natural resources, and energy - under that holding company until his retirement in 1983. He came out of retirement from 1987-88 to serve again in this capacity in order to complete the company’s merger into the Santa Fe Southern Pacific.

Among numerous honors, Reed was heralded as Modern Railroad Magazine’s Railroad Man of the Year in 1970. His career spanned the heyday of the great passenger trains, the shift from locomotive to diesel engines, deregulation, and major mergers to lead in the country’s freight and natural resource development. After Amtrak took over operation of the country’s passenger service, Reed revoked their use of the name Super Chief, the Santa Fe’s legendary luxury liner, declaring, “It is no longer super.”

Reed served on many corporate and civic boards, including Kraft Inc., Premark, The Northern Trust Company, Lake Forest Library, The Hotchkiss School, Museum of Science and Industry, past President National Merit Scholarship Corporation, Alliance Française (Chicago), and Life Trustee of Shedd Aquarium. As President of the Shedd, he oversaw the addition of its popular Oceanarium, bringing the first whales and dolphins to an inland aquarium.

Reed was a member of the Chicago Club, Onwentsia, Shoreacres, Old Elm , and Cypress Point clubs. Until last year he still rode his 1938 Hercules bicycle, which saw the first of many cycling trips he and his wife Marjorie later took throughout France until 2006.

A sister, Mary Reed Bent, preceded him in death. He is survived by his wife Marjorie Lindsay Reed, children Ginevra Reed Ralph of Eugene, Oregon; Lindsay Keith Reed of Far Hills, New Jersey; Helen Shedd Reed of Eugene, Oregon and Vincennes, France; Peter Shedd Reed of New York City; John Shedd Reed, Jr. of New Vernon, New Jersey; seven grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 3:00 pm, April 5, at The First Presbyterian Church, 700 North Sheridan Road, Lake Forest. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be sent to The Shedd Aquarium [1200 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL, 60605]; or The First Presbyterian Church, Lake Forest.