Richard Edwin Reeves, a biochemist, inventor and authority on tropical medicine, died Friday, Oct. 20, 1995 at his home in Bay St. Louis, MS. He was 83.

A memorial service was Friday, Oct. 27, at 2 p.m. at Edmond Fahey Funeral Home in Bay St. Louis.

Reeves was born in Lincoln and grew up in Farnam. [He was a 1929 graduate of Farnam High School.] His parents were Dr. Alfred E. and Maude (Taylor) Reeves. He graduated from Doane College in Crete and received his doctorate in chemistry from Yale University in 1936.

He then joined the faculty of the Rockefeller Institute in New York and in 1938 the staff of the Boyce Thompson Institute. His work there on the structure of the carbohydrate molecule and cotton fibers led to several U. S. patents for improved cellulosic material.

In 1941, Reeves joined the staff of the U. S. Department of Agriculture's newly opened Southern Regional Research Laboratory in New Orleans. He remained there until 1954 when he joined the Louisiana State University School of Medicine faculty as a research biochemist. He retired in 1988 as a professor of biochemistry and tropical medicine and moved to Bay St. Louis.

He was an authority on carbohydrate chemistry and the amoeba and spent many years studying amebiasis, a Latin American tropical disease, often visiting the International Center for Medical Research and Training in Costa Rica. He wrote many articles on biochemistry.

During World War II, he invented a chemical formula to stabilize smokeless gunpowder and cut its decay rate.

In 1964, he became the first LSU Medical School professor to receive a career research award from the National Institute of Health. He also received research grants from the Surgeon General and the Army Epidemiological Board.

He received an honorary doctorate in 1977 from Doane College and the H. M. "Hub" Cotton Faculty Excellence Award in 1982 from LSU.

In 1982, the LSU Medical Center held the Richard E. Reeves Symposium, an international conference of Reeves work on enzymes and amoebas.

Survivors include: his wife, Jean Haver Reeves; two sons, William D. and R. Michael Reeves; one daughter, Judy J. Reeves; one sister, Lorraine Oman and two grandchildren.

Private collection of Mildred Heath, Overton, NE