Myril Baird Reed |
Myril Baird Reed |
Myril Baird Reed |
Myril Baird Reed was an early PhD graduate from the University of Texas Physics Department. He went on to a successful academic career in electrical engineering, writing many books on the subject.
Myril Baird Reed was born on February 14, 1902, in Woodruff, Rich, Utah, United States. His father, John William Reed (1874-1939), was 27 and his mother, Zina Baird (1879-1960) was 23. Myril parents were married in Salt Lake Temple in 1897, they were Mormons and remained in Utah as managers of the Beckwith-Quinn Ranch (B. Q. ranch) until John died in 1939. Myril's siblings were Hazel (1903-1981) San Francisco, Golda (Peterson), Fannie Jo (Sherwood), John David and Ray Baird (1922-2009). Zina Baird, Myril's mother was a daughter of a plural Mormon marriage that included 17 children.
Myril married Georgia Beck on September 12, 1926, in Boulder, Colorado, United States. She was born November 16, 1904, in Republic County, Kansas. Her father, George, was born in Vermont and her mother, Nellie Move Beck in Canada. Myril and Georgia were the parents of a son, Clair Evan Reed (1928-1935) who was born at Grace, Bonnock County, Idaho, however sadly died at age of five.. They lived in Austin, Travis, Texas, United States in 1930
Myril and Georgia both graduated from the University of Colorado in 1926. Myril in Engineering and Georgia in the arts.
In the 1931 Austin American-Statesman, it is reported that by Dean T. U. Taylor that Myril Baird Reed is writing a dissertation on "The Design and Construction of a Short Circuit Test Board" and that John Price Woods was is writing "A Study of Shaded Magnetic Circuits." In 1935, Myril was awarded a PhD for a dissertation entitled, "The Theoretical Development and Generalization of Some Alternating Current Test Methods." Here is an abstract of this work, "The problem of devising some means for checking the correctness of three-phase primary watt-hour-meter installations has been considered by the author for several years. Theoretically, there is no difficulty in getting such an installation correctly placed; practically there are many difficulties. [...] Several methods for determining whether an installation is correct or not have been devised, all of which are restricted in one way or another by the load characteristics. In an attempt to remove these restrictions, in conjunction with an attempt to deduce a method for determining the phase sequence of any system of three-phase, three-wire currents or voltages, the results given in this paper were deduced. A rather general method of determining the correctness of the connections for a meter installation of the type shown in Fig. 1 has been worked out, as well as a general scheme for phase sequence determination. The problem of determining the phase sequence of a balanced three-phase, three-wire system using only a watt meter and capacitor has been considered by Dr. Kapp. His method, however, is restricted to balanced voltages only. In this paper a method is given in generalized form which, from an Engineering viewpoint, may be said to have no restrictions imposed upon it. The test apparatus required for determining either the phase sequence or the correctness of the meter installations is very simple. It will be considered in detail in a later chapter of this paper."
He joined Illinois Institute of Technology as an assistant professor in 1938. Georgia taught electrical engineering classes at IIT also. Myril was a prolific author writing: "Foundation for Electric Network.", "Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering" published in 1938 by International Textbook Company; "Alternating-current circuit theory" (Harper's electric power series)1948; "Electric network theory, Laplace transform technique" 1968; "The Theory of Graphs: A Basis for Network Theory" 1917; and "Electric Network Synthesis: Image Parameter Method" 1955; "Linear graphs and electrical networks", with Sundaram Seshu. He and his wife, Georgia co-authored "Mathematical Methods in Electrical Engineering." 1951. She wrote "Mathematical Methods in Electrical Engineering" in 1951.
In 1944, Myril was elected to the national advisory board of Etz Kappa Nu, national electrical engineering fraternity. He was also treasurer of Illinois Tech's chapter of Tau Beta Pi, national honorary engineering fraternity. In 1961, he was elected a fellow of the Institute of Radio Engineers.
In 1948 he became a professor of electrical engineering at University of Illinois, Urbana.They had been at Illinois Institute of Technolgy for nine years before where Georgia was an assistant professor. In 1955, Myril became a professor of electrical engineering at Michigan State University. He and Georgia resigned from Michigan State University in 1964. They apparently accepted positions teaching in Pakistan under the auspices of Colorado State University. Georgia was a mathematician. He retired as professor of electrical engineering from Colorado State University in 1967. However in that year Myril received a grant of $51,300 for "Large Electrical Power Systems Modeling."
In 1955, Reed, along with Ray W. Wainwright, organized the first of a series of conferences which became IEEE International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems. Myril and Ray chaired the first two Midwest symposia in1955 and 1956. A best paper award is given annually in Myril's memory.
Myril died in June 1987, in Fort Collins, Larimer, Colorado, United States, at the age of 85. Georgia died November 1994.
Zina Baird (1879-1987) with children: Myril Baird Reed, Hazel Reed (1903-1981), Golda Reed (1905-1996) and Fannie Josephine Reed (1911-1998)
Caption read John William Reed (1874-1939), Zina Baird Reed (1879-1960), Myril B. Reed and Fannie Josephine Reed. Some problems with this identification. Fannie Jo was born 1911, she appears to be 5 or 6 so photo would be 1916 or 1917. This would make Myril, born in 1902, 14 or 15, too young to be wearing a uniform as shown in photo and also, too young to be the man peeling potatoes. John William would be 42 or 43, too old for the one in uniform, could be man sitting.
John William Reed with Myril and Hazel.
History of Myril's mother, Zina Baird.
Zina was born 10 Jan 1879 at Centerville, Davis County, Utah. Married 28 Sept 1897 in Salt Lake Temple to John William Reed. Died 5 Apr 1960 at Salt Lake City, Utah.
Their children - Myril Baird Reed, Golda Reed, Fannie Josephine Reed, John David Reed, and Ray Baird Reed.
Zina lived with her parents until she was eighteen years of age. She met John William Reed while she was living at Randolph, Rich County, Utah. They went together five years, and then were married 28 Sep 1897 in the Salt Lake Temple. John left for a mission after they had been married five weeks. He went to the Eastern States Mission.
She lived with her father and mother while John was gone. She worked in the Syracuse Canning Factory, and when it was not running she did any kind of work she could get to help to keep John on his mission and her parent’s farm going. After he came home, they went to Woodruff, Utah, to live.
John was very ill with the fever all that next winter. He finally went to work at North and Stone Ranch. They worked there for seven years where three of their children were born. Then, they bought a home in Evanston, Wyoming. They stayed there and sent their children to grade school and high school. John worked at Bear River Ranch for three and one-half years, then, he was appointed foreman of the B. & Q. Ranch at Sage, Wyoming. He was foreman of the Ranch of eleven thousand acres of land for thirty years.
Zina served as a counselor in the Primary for 12 years, in Evanston, Wyoming. She was also an instructor in Relief Society in Woodruff, Utah, She was a housewife, a mother, and did all kinds of fancy cloth work. She was also a delegate to a number of conventions in Wyoming. After John died in March of 1939, she moved to Salt Lake City where she worked in the temple. At one time, she stated that she had completed endowments for twenty five hundred people and was happy for that great blessing.
Her hope was that all her children would be together for eternity. Her Patriarchal Blessing always helped her and was a guidepost to her through life. She visited and did endowment work in all of the Temples available during her life except the Hawaiian Temple. She also helped with sealings in Idaho Falls and Salt Lake Temples. She met nearly all of the General Authorities of the Church, also Governors and Senators of Utah and Wyoming.
Sister Hazel and Myril seem to be missing, Ray is born in 1922 so photo is about 1924. Myril would likely have been at University of Colorado at this time. Man at far right in plaid shirt has some resemblance to Myril. If the photo were his, he might not identified himself.
John, Zina and maybe Fannie Jo and Ray or John.
Myril Baird Reed, University of Colorado, 1926
Georgia Verona Beck, University of Colorado, 1926. Second Row, Second from Left.