Harry Reid - Early Life, Education, and Early Career

Early Life, Education, and Early Career

Reid was born in Searchlight, Nevada, the third of four sons of Inez Orena (née Jaynes), a laundress, and Harry Vincent Reid, a miner who committed suicide with a gunshot to the head in 1972 at the age of 58 when Harry was 32 years old. His paternal grandmother was an English immigrant from Darlston, Staffordshire. Reid's boyhood home had no indoor toilet, hot water or telephone. Searchlight had no high school, so Reid boarded with relatives 40 miles away in Henderson, Nevada, to attend Basic High School where he played football, and was an amateur boxer. While at Basic High he met future Nevada governor Mike O'Callaghan, who was a teacher there, and served as his boxing coach. Reid attended Southern Utah University and graduated from Utah State University where he double majored in political science and history. Reid also minored in economics from the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business. He then went to George Washington University Law School earning a J.D. while working for the United States Capitol Police.