John D. Reid
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- Category: Obituaries
- Created on Wednesday, 07 August 2013 13:25
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John David Reid, 44, loving husband of Jill and proud father of Jacob and Megan, was taken too early doing what he loved to do.
He was born April 21, 1969, in Petersburg, and was found at sea after an Aug. 1, 2013, boating accident. He flourished living in Sitka and had enjoyed its abundance of sea and hunting activity since October 1998.
John’s young years were spent in logging camps with his family around his grandfather’s business, Reid Timber Inc.
His love for the outdoors of Southeast Alaska was and is forever within him. As he would often say, he did have “the bug.”
His family moved to Montesano, Wash., when he was 9 years old and he attended schools there, graduating from Montesano High School in 1987. The next year he spent at the Divers Institute of Technology in Ballard, Wash.
On July 20, 1991, he married his high school sweetheart, Jill Weaver, in Montesano. They soon moved to Ketchikan where he worked for his family business, now Reid Brothers Logging.
After moving to Sitka, he started his own company, J&J Mechanical, with Jim Decker, a high school friend who was also lost at sea 10 years ago. In recent years, he has been fishing for a living.
John is survived by his wife, Jill, of Sitka; son, Jacob, 19, sophomore and swimmer at the University of Rochester in New York studying pre-medicine; daughter, Megan, 17, senior student-athlete at Sitka High School; father and mother, Thomas and Vicki Reid of Lake Havasu, Ariz.; and sisters Sandra (Joel) Greene of Montesano, and Kimberly (Russell) Stilson of Lake Havasu.
Along with his immediate family, he is survived by many aunts and uncles throughout Southeast Alaska and the west coast; five nephews; and three nieces.
A memorial service and celebration of John’s life will be held at the Coast Guard Gazebo on Thursday, Aug. 8, acknowledging those who worked so hard at recovering him.
The gathering will begin at 5 p.m. and any food or beverage items are welcome to share along with stories and memories.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the John D. Reid Memorial Fund at any Wells Fargo Bank, for his children’s college educations.
Thanks to the generosity and expertise of the the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska broadband department, Tidal Network ; Christopher Cropley, director of Tidal Network; and Luke Johnson, Tidal Network technician, SitkaSentinel.com is again being updated. Tidal Network has been working tirelessly to install Starlink satellite equipment for city and other critical institutions, including the Sentinel, following the sudden breakage of GCI's fiberoptic cable on August 29, which left most of Sitka without internet or phone connections. CCTHITA's public-spirited response to the emergency is inspiring.
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20 YEARS AGO
September 2004
Photo caption: Jan Nelson, a White Elephant shop volunteer, stands with George Rohrer as he tries out a new public address system installed in the shop. The equipment was bought using money donated to the White Elephant in memory of George’s wife, Violet, a longtime White E volunteer.
50 YEARS AGO
September 1974
Photo caption: A dahl sheep, a totem bookend and a fishing boy won awards for Sitkan Robert C. Turner at the International Wood Carvers Congress, in Davenport, Iowa. The three pieces also took first place at the Fur Rendezvous Handicraft Show earlier this year.
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