John F. Reed, interviewed in 1985, discusses the Institute of Ecology, including its origins, its approaches to research, its relationship with colleges and universities, its structural and funding challenges, and its demise. Dr. Reed was born on November 18, 1911 in Rockport, Maine. He grew up loving the forests of New England. Reed received his AB degree in biology from Dartmouth College in 1933, his M.A. in forestry and botany from Duke University in 1935, and his Ph.D. at Duke a year later. Through the years, Reed served the Ecological Society of America in many ways, most significantly from 1953 to 1957 as Secretary, and in 1963 as President.