Carleton Leonard Reed was born July 24, 1913 in Hoosick Falls, New York. His father, Arthur Reed, was born in 1880 in NY. His mother, Mabel Andrews, was also born in 1880 in NY. His parents married in 1906. They had three children, Arnold (b.1908), Forrest (b. 1911), and Carleton (b.1913). The family lived at 23 Carey Avenue in Hoosick Falls. The father was a proprietor of a local bakery.
The children all attended public school in Hoosick Falls.
In 1927 Carleton Reed began to attend Hoosick Falls High School, where he became interested in a career in art. He was also a talented athlete. He played tennis and ice hockey, and became a popular referee of soccer games.
In 1928 his eldest brother, Arnold Reed, died at the age of nineteen.
In 1930 Carleton Reed graduated from Hoosick Falls High School. That fall he attended Hobart College in Geneva, NY.
In 1932 he attended the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where he studied illustration, graphic design, and art instruction. His teachers included H. W. Scott, Frederick Blakeselee, and Rudy Belarski. His classmates included John Meola, Roderick Duff, and Joe Szokoli.
In 1935 he completed his studies at Pratt he opened a commercial art studio in NYC. He produced illustrations for the men's fashion industry and advertising.
In June 1937 Popular Science Monthly published an article by Carleton Reed in a regular feature of helpful hints. His contribution was entitled, "Rubber Cement Keeps Dust Out Of Framed Pictures."
On December 27, 1937 Carleton Reed married Brita Margaret Ohberg. They were married in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan on 112th Street, between Amsterdam Avenue and Morningside Drive. She was born on August 16, 1914 in Hjo, Vastra Gotaland, Sweden. In 1924 her family came to America and settled in NYC, where they lived in Astoria, Queens, at 21-11 46th Street. Her father was a teacher of Electronics. Brita Margaret Ohberg was also an artist and had studied at Pratt at the same time as Carleton Reed. They had two children Christina Reed (b.1941), and Carl A. Reed (b.1948).
In 1939 Carleton Reed painted the cover for the December issue of Street & Smith Sport Story Magazine. He signed his work with block letters "CARL REED." His work also appeared on other pulp magazines, including Football Action, Ace Sports, and Sports Action.
In 1942 during WWII, Carleton Reed enlisted and served overseas in the infantry as a machine gunner. In 1944 he was honorably discharged, but re-enlisted in the Red Cross field force. He was trained at Camp Howze, Texas, and was sent back overseas, where he became a Combat Field Director in France. He accompanied the 411th Infantry in a raid on Rohrbach, France, for which he was awarded the Bronze Star.
After the war Carleton Reed returned to NYC, where he was hired to teach illustration at the Pratt Institute of Brooklyn.
In 1945 his mother, Mabel Andrews Reed, died at the age of sixty-five.
On June 20, 1947 The Times Record of Troy, NY, reported, "The July edition of the popular magazine, Brevities, contains several specimens of the work of Carleton Reed, a Hoosick Falls boy on the faculty of Pratt Institute."
At that same time he also attended New York University on the G.I. Bill.
In 1949 he was awarded a Bachelor of Science Degree in Education from NYU.
In 1950 he became the Art Director of the Public Schools of Nyack, NY. The family lived in South Nyack, NY.
On August 17, 1950 The Troy Record published an extensive article on an exhibition of artwork by Carleton Reed at the public library in Hoosick Falls.
In 1951 he began to teach evening art classes for Officers at West Point Military Academy.
In 1952 he earned a Master's Degree from Columbia University.
In 1952 he illustrated several New York State government publications.
In 1953 he wrote a syllabus on Junior High School Art Education for the New York State Department of Education.
In 1954 he was awarded a Ford Foundation Fellowship for a one year sabbatical to travel across America to research his theories in art education. At the end of this period he wrote the treatise, Six Thousand Miles of Design in America.
In 1956 Carleton Reed spent the summer in Toronto, Canada, where he was an Art Education Consultant for the Canadian Government.
In September of 1956 Carleton Reed became the New York State Supervisor of Art Education in Albany.
In 1959 his wife, Brita Reed, was a high school art teacher in New Paltz, NY. She also had a distinguished career as an artist, art educator, and recipient of awards, honors and prestigious appointments.
In 1960 Carleton Reed earned a Doctoral Degree in Education from New York University.
In 1965 Carleton Reed became Art Supervisor in the Rochester, New York, School System. At that same time, his wife, Brita Reed, was appointed Lecturer in the Humanities at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
On March 25, 1968 Carleton Reed's father, Arthur Reed, died at the age of eighty-seven.
In 1968 Carleton Reed presented a paper on the process of creativity at the 18th World Congress of the International Society of Education Through Art in Czechoslovakia.
Dr. Carleton Reed became a professor at the University of Massachusetts.
His books include "Early Adolescent Art Education," "Making Art From Scrap" and "Sculpture from Found Objects."
In 1989 Carleton Reed designed a monument to the liberation of Pfaffenhoffen, France, by the 103rd Infantry (Cactus Division) and forces of the Free French.
Carleton Reed died in Bennington, Vermont, at the age of ninety-two on December 5, 2005. © David Saunders 2015 |
