Peter H. Odegard served as president of Reed College from 1945 to 1948. Born in Kalispell, Montana, in 1901, Odegard received a Bachelors from the University of Washington and a PhD from Columbia. He taught at Williams, Ohio State University, and Amherst, and worked as special assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury in Washington, D. C. As president, Odegard increased the number of faculty, expanded the geographic scope of the Reed student body, encouraged the arts at Reed, and made campus improvements. After serving as president, Odegard became chair of the UC Berkeley political science department. He retired from UC Berkeley in 1965.

[Information from the “Presidents of Reed” page on Reed’s website.]