In loving memory of
Maxine Reed

• November 12, 1931
• -
• October 10, 2022

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Maxine K. Reed,
November 12, 1931 – October 10, 2022

Maxine Kathryn Gordon was born to Forrest and Jessie Gordon in South Dakota on November 12, 1931, the youngest of four children.
She graduated from the University of South Dakota, studying radio and the emerging television industry. She was one of the early women to find a place on the air in broadcast radio.

While working at USD’s radio station, she met and was courted by Bob Reed. They married in 1954. For the next twenty-five years, Max and Bob raised three children as she supported his career in public broadcasting. When she returned to the workplace, she changed her career focus to publishing, serving as senior editor and editorial director for a number of New York book publishers.

As musicians, Max and Bob were accomplished in voice, piano, trombone, and banjo, and took pleasure in entertaining, first at parties, and later in more professional venues—churches, retirement communities, nonprofit organizations—and at PBS meetings and conventions.

They were proud to have exposed their children to varied experiences and diverse locales, living in Honolulu, Southern Indiana, Northern Virginia, Salt Lake City, and Long Island, NY. Max was very fond of her time in the Hawaiian islands and appreciated aspects of Hawaiian culture for the rest of her life. Max and Bob thoroughly enjoyed retirement in Central Florida and were active members of several organizations, notably the University Club of Winter Park, where both served (quite separately) as president, among many other positions. She also served a term as president of the local branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and was active in the local Alpha Phi Sorority alumni group and the Orange County Historical Society.

Max continued to flourish in the years after Bob’s death in 2011, making new friends and pursuing new activities. In addition to Bob, she was preceded in death by her parents and siblings. She is survived by her children: Bob (Linda) of Winter Park, Rick (Louise) of Grass Valley, California, and Deri (Ira) of New York City, and twelve nieces and nephews. She was a loving grandmother and cherished her four grandchildren, Regina, Austen, Connor, and Kelsey. She will be dearly missed by all who knew and loved her.