In Memory: Jacqueline Harding Reynolds '51

Jacqueline Ann Reynolds '51, retired professor in the Department of Cell Biology of Duke University, respected for her work on cell membranes, died at home April 24. Dr. Reynolds was 88.

She graduated from Pacific University in 1951 and moved with her husband to Washington state where she worked at the McChord Air Force Base Post Exchange while raising four children. After her first divorce in 1960, she became the first female graduate student of Dr. George Halsey at the Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, completing her Ph.D. in three years. She was hired by IBM, then, after her second divorce in 1969, began working at Duke University, in tandem with Dr. Charles Tanford, who was her life partner until his death in 2009. She was the first female member of Duke’s Academic Council.

She is survived by three children, Ben Reynolds, Deborah Jackson and Rebecca Newton; and by six grandchildren, Stephen Anthony (Reynolds) McCoy, Abigail Sheriff, Benet Reynolds, Louise Newton, Joseph Jackson, Drew Reynolds; and by five grandchildren, Rory Sheriff, Gavin Sheriff, Molly Sheriff, Levi Sheriff, Rowan Newton -- all of the United States.