French taught at Reed from 1947 until his retirement in 1988 and he presided over the establishment of Anthropology as a separate department there. Given that French's father, Delbert R. French, was a member of Reed's first graduating class (1915) (French co-founded the informal children-of-alumni group, Offspring of Reed Graduates of yesteryear, or ORGY) and that French remained involved with the Reed community (living across the street from campus) until his death, he may indeed have had a longer association with Reed College than anyone else before or since.