Submitted by Slambo on Mon, 03/17/2008 - 06:09
There are various stories around the news sites today that John Shedd Reed, president of the Santa Fe Railroad from 1967 to 1986, passed away over the weekend. The AP says it happened on Sunday, but the Chicago Tribune says Saturday. Whichever day it happened (and if you have more information please let me know), the railroad industry lost an influential executive. Reed was the grandson of John G. Shedd, the second president of Marshall Field and the founder of Shedd Aquarium (Reed himself was president of the aquarium from 1984 to 1994). As president of the Santa Fe, Reed took the railroad through the deregulation period of the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was also under his leadership that the Santa Fe told Amtrak it could no longer use the "Chief" or "Super Chief" names on its passenger trains in 1976 due to a significant decrease in the perceived quality of a ride aboard them.
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