Reed was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, on August 16, 1914, and grew up in Washington, D.C. with his family.[5] He graduated from Washington Central High School. He graduated in 1932 from George Washington University[6] with a B.A. in anthropology.[5] Reed then received an M.A. from Harvard University in 1933 and worked on many excavations for the National Park Service as a seasonal ranger.
Reed was appointed as Regional Archaeologist for the National Park Service in 1939, and supervised excavations at Mancos Canyons, Colorado, for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.[5]
In 1943 he volunteered as a sergeant in World War II, and served in the European Theater of Operations. During this time he was granted a Ph.D. from Harvard with his report on the Mancos Canyons as his dissertation[5] titled "An Archaeological Study of Mancos Valley, Southwestern Colorado, and Its Position in the Prehistory of the American Southwest.[7] After returning from army service in March 1946, he resumed his work as Regional Archaeologist until his retirement in 1970.[3]
He served as President of the Society for American Archeology from 1960 to 1961, and received the Department of the Interior Distinguished Service Award.[5] He also served on the Board of Trustees of the Archaeological Society of New Mexico. The Archaeological Society of New Mexico published a book of collected papers in his honor.[5]
Reed, Erik Kellerman. (1938). Archaeology of the Mimbres Valley, New Mexico. Central Texas Archaeologist (4): 9-20.
Reed, Erik Kellerman (1952). The Tewa Indians of the Hopi Country. Plateau (25): 11-18.
Reed, Erik Kellerman. (1966). Appendix 1: Human Skeletal Material from Tse-Ta'a. In Excavations at Tse-ta'a, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona, by C. R. Steen, pp. 123-129. National Park Service, Archaeological Research Series No. 9, Washington, D.C.
^ abcdefgSteen, Charlie R. (1981). "The Life and Times of Erik Kellerman Reed". In Schroeder, Albert H. (ed.). Collected Papers in Honor of Erik Kellerman Reed(PDF). Albuquerque, New Mexico: Albuquerque Archaeological Society Press. pp. 1–14.
^Browman, David L.; Williams, Stephen (2013). Anthropology at Harvard: a biographical history, 1790-1940. Peabody Museum monographs. Cambridge: Peabody Museum press. p. 421. ISBN978-0-87365-913-0.
Reid, Jefferson, and Stephanie Whittlesey. “The View from Santa Fe.” Prehistory, Personality, and Place: Emil W. Haury and the Mogollon Controversy, University of Arizona Press, 2010, pp. 95–103.
