John E.H. Hancock was born on October 20, 1929 in Warwickshire, England. He graduated with first class honors from the Imperial College in London and also held the degrees of Ph.D., A.R.C.S., A.R.I.C. and D.I.C. from that institution.

He came to Reed College in 1955 on a temporary appointment as a Ford Foundation Intern and Instructor in Chemistry, and received a regular appointment to the Faculty as Assistant Professor of Chemistry in 1957. He received tenure in 1961 and married Virginia Oglesby Hancock in 1962.

In September of 1966, he brought together a group of musicians to play early music. The following year the group was formally organized as the Reed Collegium Musicum and has continued to the present.

He also served as the Computer Center Director, and his senior thesis students were among the first to use Reed’s first commercial computer—an IBM 1620 in 1964. He received many grants, including several in support of his work in developing computer assisted instruction for students of organic chemistry.

John Hancock died on March 16, 1989.