Earl Reeder
Co-Inventor of the Tranquilizer Valium
Born was in Long Branch, New Jersey in 1924. Reeder co-invented Valium in 1963 while he was employed by Hoffman-La Roche as an organic chemist. Reeder and his family lived in Nutley from 1959-2003. Reeder was an avid skier and an early member for the Twin Hickory Ski Club of Nutley where he met his wife in 1953.
Reeder was employed by Hoffman LaRoche for 32 years. In 1957, when Reeder was serving as an assistant to chemist Leo Sternbach, he was cleaning up the lab and came across some neglected beakers of chemicals that had been produced a couple of years earlier. The neglected beakers contained compounds called benzodiazepines. Testing started in 1957, and it was patented in 1961 as Valium, a $1 billion-plus drug. Reeder’s and Sternbach’s names are on the patent.
Reeder was a member of the Scientific Research Society, the Unitarian Church of Montclair and a volunteer driver for the Nutley Red Cross. He died in 2003 and is survived by his wife Helene and three children.