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Professor at Dartmouth College and the University of Toronto

Harry Makler 鈥�58

June 29, 2025

Harry Mark Makler was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1953 to Dr. Mark Makler and Bettina Makler. Over the course of his childhood, Harry lived all over the world: in Boston, New York City, Vermont, South Africa, England, and Portland.

At Reed, Harry earned his bachelor’s degree in economics and completed a thesis on the escalator clause with advising by Professor Carl M. Stevens ’42. A Renaissance man in the making, Harry rehearsed for a production of The Mikado while taking his junior qual—and received good news during intermission, when Professor George Hay [economics 1956–83] told him, “By the way, I believe you passed.”

After graduation and a year of working in South Africa, Harry was en route to the University of Chicago to begin a master’s of business administration program, but paid a visit to the department of sociology at Columbia University. In Harry’s telling, he was enrolled in a PhD program the next day. Shortly thereafter, Anita Cramer ’61 joined Harry in New York, and they were married in 1980.

As a PhD candidate and later professor at Dartmouth College and the University of Toronto, Harry led many first-of-their-kind field studies in Portugal and Brazil. He learned Portuguese and made lifelong colleagues and friends through this work. Harry also trained many future social scientists and took great satisfaction in the growth and accomplishments of his students and colleagues.

Harry’s greatest joy was his family and friends (he loved sneaking chocolates, ice cream, and potato chips to children, and sometimes pets). His unique voice and speech pattern—layered accents and Yiddisher goofiness, perhaps—was and is imitated by all his grandchildren with great delight.

Harry and Anita remained involved with Reed together after graduation, participating in Reed’s Oral History Project and serving as admission alumni volunteers. Harry is survived by Anita and their two children.

Appeared in Reed magazine: Spring 2026