Reed Phillips Jr.

Reed Phillips, Jr., of Alexandria, Virginia, passed away at age 89 on November 6, 2023 after several years of battling Parkinson’s disease. He is survived by his wife of 67 years, Nancy (Gahegan), and three sons and their wives: Reed III (Sarah), Brent (Angela), and Brad (Tina). He also has nine grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Reed capped an impressive 37-year career in public service in 1996 when he retired from the U.S. Department of Commerce as its Director of Information Resources Management (IRM), a role that is now called Chief Information Officer. He was the first Director of IRM in the federal government in 1980 when he joined the U.S. Department of Interior. He also served as a senior information technology executive at the Federal Bureau of Investigation for two years.

In all, Reed worked for 15 years in the federal government in Washington DC, from 1978 to 1996. For most of that time, he was a member of the Senior Executive Service and was founder of the Federal CIO Council. He had a short interlude of three years in the private sector as Vice President of the American Broadcasting Company where he oversaw the computer and communications systems for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. After he left ABC, he rejoined the federal government in 1986 at the Department of Commerce.

In 1974, he began a mid-career shift from a communications officer in U.S. Marine Corps to a government computer executive by entering graduate school at American University. After he completed a master’s degree in computer systems and Management Information Systems, he was invited to join the adjunct faculty at American University. Reed taught post-graduate computer courses in the evenings for the next 10 years while working his day job for the Marine Corps and the federal government.

Reed received significant recognition for his work in the federal government. In 1988, he was one of the first nine inductees into the Post Newsweek’s Technology Media Hall of Fame along with Rear Admiral Grace Hopper and the Hon. Jack Brooks. In 1989, he was selected by CIO Magazine as one of the top 100 CIOs in the US.

He began his military career in 1956, after graduating from the University of Iowa where he participated on championship debate teams. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant and during the next 22 years he served in Virginia, California, Hawaii, North Carolina, Washington, DC, Florida, Vietnam and in the Mediterranean Sea, where he was head of the Marine detachment aboard the U.S.S. Saratoga aircraft carrier. While serving in Vietnam, from 1969-1970, he was awarded the Bronze Star. In 1978, Reed left the Marine Corps as a Lieutenant Colonel, just months after being selected for promotion to Colonel, to join the FBI.

After his 22-year career as a Marine Corps officer and 15 years in the federal government, Reed worked as Vice President at CACI International and SRA International. During his 47-year career, he was active in additional roles which included a member of the advisory board at Kogod School of Business at American University and as president of the Society for Information Management.

Reed was born in Davenport, Iowa to Reed Phillips, Sr., and Ruth Harms Phillips. In recognition of his long career in public service he was inducted into the Davenport Central High School Hall of Fame. His younger sister, Donna Meyer, resides in Carefree, Arizona.