Henry Clay Reed, a historian and author of Delaware: A History of the First State, served as a professor, researcher, and chair of the history department of the University of Delaware for forty years, from 1924 to 1964. In 1914, the Delaware legislature chartered a Women's College, located adjacent to the campus of Delaware College (later the University of Delaware) in Newark. The Dean of the Women's College, Dr. Winifred J. Robinson, laid the groundwork for women's higher education in Delaware, even though she once stated, "I am a firm believer in the separate college for women and I think absolute separation is really better." But in 1938, Dean Robinson retired. Henry Clay Reed witnessed the beginning of co-education at the college level

Even after the colleges joined in 1944, boys and girls studied at separate tables in the library and the girls had stricter rules of conduct and a curfew. "Also, if a girl got married while she was a student, she had to leave," he remembered. A consummate educator, Reed felt that the larger enrollment that came with male and female students allowed for a richer and more advanced curriculum.