Our Rich History: Jim Reis, Kentucky Post columnist, loved history, lived history and made history . . .

Paul Tenkotte, a renowned local historian himself, asked us to repeat our tribute to our colleague Jim Reis, as his “Our Rich History” column for this week. Reis died on Friday at the age of 65, after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. Tenkotte and his fellow historians are preparing at Part II about Reis that will appear in this space next Monday. Jim Reis’ Pieces of the Past which appeared as a regular feature in The Kentucky Post for many years was the inspiration for the Tribune’s Our Rich History, which appears as a regular Monday feature. Here, his former Post colleagues remember Jim. Next week, we’ll hear from his fellow historians.

By Judy Clabes
NKyTribune editor

Jim Reis, a journalist and historian, a genuine good guy and gentleman, a beloved father, brother, son and husband, a valued friend of his long-time Kentucky Post colleagues, and a household name in Northern Kentucky, died Friday after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 65.

Jim Reis was born in Ft.Thomas on September 10, 1951, son of the late Gilbert and Ruth Schalk Reis. He and his wife Janet lived in Alexandria.

Eight generations of the Reis family have called Northern Kentucky home; perhaps that is how he came to love local history and why he was impassioned to share it through his column in The Kentucky Post — and through a popular series of Pieces of the Past books that enjoy a long shelf life in homes across the region, including mine.

Jim loved newspapers, too. As a young boy he had a newspaper route and a collection of newspapers from every place his family visited. He started working full-time as a clerk at The Kentucky Post just after graduation from high school and continued there for 36 years. He got his degree from Thomas More College in 1974 while he worked as a reporter. That same year, he married Janet Rose, his high school sweetheart. They had two sons.

He had been in the newsroom for a good 10 years before I arrived in the early ’80s. He was then, as he remained, a gentleman and a dedicated professional — and everybody’s friend. If he ever had a bad day, none of us saw it. Affable, good-humored, with a ready smile and a good word — that was our Jim.

His Pieces of the Past column started about that time, too, and through those glorious years, he must have written well over 1,000 of them. We lovingly referred to them as “Reis’s Pieces.”

Jim spent a lot of time at the Kenton County Library — so much that it is told in the Jim Reis entry in the Encyclopedia of Northern Kentucky that if mail came to the library addressed to “Occupant,” it was given to Jim.

He served on the Northern Kentucky History Committee of the 1988 Greater Cincinnati Bicentennial Celebration and worked with the Kenton County Sesquicentennial Committee. He receive the Robert E. Lee Award for excellence in writing about Kentucky’s Civil War period. He was Parade Grand Marshal for the 2005 Fourth of July Parade in Ft. Thomas. Its theme was Legacy of our Past. What better choice?

He gave hundreds of talks on local history to groups around the region. He served on the board of the Behringer-Crawford Museum and was a founding member of the Campbell County Historical Society, and participated in organizing history-related events, including the first Northern Kentucky History Day at NKU. He contributed to the Kentucky Encyclopedia and to the Encyclopedia of Northern Kentucky.

He donated his extensive collection of research files to Northern Kentucky University’s Steely Library Archives.

Clearly, Jim loved history, lived history and made history.

Visitation for Jim will be at St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Alexandria from 10 a.m. until 11:45 a.m on Thursday November 3 with Mass immediately following the visitation at 12 Noon.

Meantime, enjoy these remembrances of a special man from some of his colleagues from his own past:

Mike Farrell, former managing editor, The Kentucky Post

I think I worked with Jim Reis almost my entire career at The Kentucky Post. He was one of the nicest people I’ve known and despite the pressure of deadline reporting, he usually radiated a warm smile.

He had a huge assignment, reporting on the suburbs in Campbell and Kenton counties. He worked hard, he wrote fast and he was accurate. There were few calls during those years that he had made a mistake.

What most people associate with Jim is Pieces of The Past, a project he started on his own. He dug into Northern Kentucky’s history with an unmatched fervor.

People loved that weekly column. After we edited a collection of his “pieces” into a book, he and I went to the Crestview Mall to sell copies. Jim’s fans came by to buy the book, get an autograph and talk to him. No one knew or cared who I was because they all wanted to talk with Jim.

He was a special man who enriched The Post and its readers with his reporting and his love for history. We are all better that Jim was a favorite son of Northern Kentucky.

William Weathers, former reporter, The Kentucky Post

I’m grateful for knowing Jim and learning from him.

He and I used to laugh at having once, during the heat of deadline, argued about which day of the week it was, quickly to learn that we were BOTH wrong.

Paul Knue, former editor of The Kentucky Post and The Cincinnati Post:

All I can say is what all of his colleagues know: Jim was a good guy — kind and gentle and thoughtful. Much attention has been focused on his history columns, and rightfully so, but he was first and foremost a very good reporter. His beat covered a wide swath of Northern Kentucky, a patchwork of little towns and jurisdictions. Whenever I asked him about any issue in any community, he had a thorough understanding of it.

More than that, he was genuinely respected by the people he wrote about and the people he covered. As journalists, I don’t think any of us could ask for more than that.

Rest In Peace, Jimmy. You did work that mattered. And you did it in a quiet, humble way. What a great epitaph.

Maureen (Mo) Conian, former copyeditor, The Kentucky Post

I remember Jim well, as often I edited and wrote a headline for his “Pieces of the Past” columns. I was always struck by how much these columns told, how much Jim knew about local history, how learned and gentlemanly he was to work with, and how very much his column reflected the undeniable fact that ours was the real deal: the true newspaper of N. Ky. — along with, so very much, that crew of absolutely dedicated and ace reporters/editors. I continue to feel privileged to have worked with Jim and all The Kentucky Post team — so bright, so dedicated, so driven and, for the most part, well driven by ideals of our founding principles that we all cherish.

Rosemary Weathers Burnham, former editorial page editor, The Kentucky Post

For those who were able to be at my farm a few years ago, do you remember how Jim Reis arrived with news clippings and other historical documents of our lives at the Post? Our own personal historian! He was so happy to share all that. I love the memory of him that day, so animated and happy.

He and I started that Pieces of the Past column, which he loved; of course, he was the soul of that. I hope someone has a photo they can share of the young Jim working at the Post, as we will remember him that way — dependable, always there, always kind.

Mark Niekirk, former city editor, The Kentucky Post:

Those of you who remember The Kentucky Post and those readers who loved local history, will remember Jim Reis, whose assignment to cover the suburban cities. Each day, he produced the Suburban Wrap-up, with short news items that kept readers updated on what was happening from Fort Mitchell to Union, from Alexandria to Park Hills and, as it is said, all points in between — and in Northern Kentucky, there are a lot of points in between.

That part of his job was duty. Jim’s passion was local history. Each Monday, his Pieces of the Past column occupied a page inside The Kentucky Post. It was there that Northern Kentucky’s history was retold, reminding Post readers of our region’s rich and colorful past. Floods. Hangings. Murders. Triumphs.

Internally we knew them as Reis’s Pieces. If the internet were around back then, he would have been getting all the hits. The Post published three books of Jim’s history columns, and a fourth was on his writing table.

Parkinson’s stole much of Jim’s physical abilities over the past 15 or so years, slowly but with a cruel certainty. He worked until he could not. In those last days on the job, he was at his desk by 6:45 a.m., typing by grasping a pencil in each of his shaking hands and using the erasers to peck out his words under deadline pressure. Wow. No day was too tough after you saw Jim at work. He was quietly insprirational to our newsroom, not unlike (and I don’t intend hyberbole; it’s just that this is real) Pope John Paul was inspirational to people of faith as he stood trembling but defiant through his disease.

A disease does not change who a person is. It often, however, illuminates who that person is. So it was with Parkinson’s and Jim. We saw his strength. His heart. His passion. His love of life.

In the early afternoon of a sweet October day, Jim left us. His ability to walk, to speak, even to eat and certainly to write, were taken from him. But he was undiminished in spirit.

So long, Jim Reis. The rest you have now, you earned absolutely. You blessed us, friend.

To Janet and the rest of the Reis family, we say thank you for Jim’s time in our newsroom, which he so loved. Families of The Post journalists really didn’t know what it was like to live with someone who worked an eight-hour day. Spouses and children sacrificed a lot in the interest of the cause. So the fact that Jim’s time on earth was shorter than expected makes his time spent in the newsroom an even greater gift to us.

Hat’s off, JR. It was an honor to be your colleague.