Preliminary Inventory of the Mark Reader Papers

Mark Reader was born on June 24, 1933 in Brooklyn, New York. He married Frances Marion Sheldon (1933-) on February 2, 1954 and the couple had three sons, Timothy (1955-2005), Seth (1960-), and Tristan. Reader earned his B.A. (1954), M.A. (1960), and Ph.D. (1966) from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and began his career as a journalist, working as a campus reporter for the Detroit News (1952-1954) and as a journalist and editor for The Grand Rapids Press and The Long Island Star Journal (1954-1958). He entered academia in 1962 as an Instructor at Allegheny College, where he became an Assistant Professor in 1965. Reader came to Arizona State University in 1967 as an Assistant Professor of Political Science.

In 1984, former State Press writer Matthew Scully submitted several columns critical of Reader to Accuracy in Academia (AIA), a watchdog organization that used volunteer monitors to identify and publicize instances of perceived liberal bias in University classrooms. The group charged that Reader used Political Science 101 as a soapbox to indoctrinate students with his obsessive fear of all things nuclear and that assigned readings showed only one side of various controversial issues discussed. Reader sought support from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the American Political Science Association, but it was not until the New York Times published an article and an editorial generating national publicity about Reader and the AIA that ASU President Nelson issued a statement challenging the practice of random classroom surveillance. Reader later speculated that Nelson acted to prevent ASU's return to the AAUP's list of censured institutions (where it had been listed from 1970 until 1981 as a result of Morris Starsky's dismissal) than out of any desire to defend academic freedom.

Reader retired from Arizona State University in 1998 and took up watercolor painting.