Former Executive Director of the Georgetown University Alumni Association James Patrick Reed (C ’53) died of complications related to Parkinson’s disease at Suburban Hospital in aryland last week.

Reed, a Washington, D.C. native and resident of Rockville, Md., was 71 years old.

Reed came to Georgetown after graduating from Gonzaga College High School in 1949 and returned as an active member of the university community after a three-year stint in the United States Army. He served in a variety of positions once he returned to Georgetown in 1956, including assistant fund director, alumni fund director and associate alumni director, moving up to executive director of the Alumni Association, overseeing a community of more than 100,000 alumni, from 1968 until 1984. He remained an active force in the Georgetown community as assistant to the president of the university for Alumni Affairs until 1995.

As executive director, Reed advanced university fundraising, pushing the annual contributions to the Annual Fund to over $2 million for the first time and later worked to increase the university’s lagging Endowment Fund. He also served for a short time as president of the Georgetown University Federal Credit Union.

Reed was also integral in the growth of the Alumni Magazine and the encouragement of the Athletic Hall of Fame.

His contributions to the university did not go unnoticed. The Alumni Association conferred its most distinguished honor, the John Carroll Award, on Reed and later named the Reed Alumni Residence in his honor in 1993.

Outside of Georgetown, Reed also served on the Board of ontgomery Federal Savings and Loan and Maryland National Savings and Loan and on the Board of Trustees of Mt. St. Mary’s College in Newburg, N.Y., as well as a member of the various church and secular organizations.

Mr. Reed is survived by his wife of 47 years, Mary L. (Davis) Reed; son Robert A Reed of Arlington, Va.; daughter and son in law, argaret and Lawrence Reed; and son and daughter in law, James and Holly Low Reed, as well as four grandchildren, several nieces, nephews and cousins. He is also survived by his sister, Margaret Caudle of Bethesda, Md.

Services will be held for Reed at St. Elizabeth’s Catholic Church in Rockville, Md., today at 10 a.m. The family suggests in lieu of flowers that contributions be made to the Georgetown University Alumni Fund or the Parkinson’s Disease Association in memory of James Patrick Reed.