Portland:
Reed College was founded in 1908, and its first classes were held in 1911. Reed is named for Oregon pioneers Simeon and Amanda Reed. Simeon Reed had been an entrepreneur in trade on the Columbia River; in his will he suggested that his wife could "devote some portion of my estate to benevolent objects, or to the cultivation, illustration, or development of the fine arts in the city of Portland, or to some other suitable purpose, which shall be of permanent value and contribute to the beauty of the city and to the intelligence, prosperity, and happiness of the inhabitants." Amanda Reed followed that suggestion in her will by setting up a board of trustees to found an institution of learning in Portland, with no limits other than an insistence on equality and secularism.
But I say this as a Reed dropout - the place is just as loony as you say. Maybe more so.
If there is a more Leftwing college than Reed I'm not aware of it.
That place is really named for that communist dupe John Reed??