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Gregg S. Reed

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Far from Home

Sydney Reed, Portrait
Sydney Reed, Portrait

(JPG) A pencil portrait of my father Sydney C. Reed by New York artist John D. Boyd. Drawn in Okinawa, Japan, during the fighting in World-War II.

"Far from Home," Cover
"Far from Home," Cover

(JPG) My cover design for a family history book re-telling our family members' war stories.

Sydney Reed
Sydney Reed

(.jpg) A photograph of my father in 2007. The long scar on his right cheek is a war wound, an injury from basic training.

Far from Home | Media List

  • icon Sydney Reed, Portrait

    (JPG) A pencil portrait of my father Sydney C. Reed by New York artist John D. Boyd. Drawn in Okinawa, Japan, during the fighting in World-War II.


  • icon "Far from Home," Cover

    (JPG) My cover design for a family history book re-telling our family members' war stories.


  • icon Sydney Reed

    (.jpg) A photograph of my father in 2007. The long scar on his right cheek is a war wound, an injury from basic training.



Statement

Fighting on the Japanese island of Okinawa in World War II, the New York artist John D. Boyd slept in the cot across from my father. The artist drew this pencil portrait of my father. The portrait is from Far From Home, a family history book that my mother and my brother-in-law completed in May, 2006. The 125-page illustrated book tells the war stories of family members who fought in wars from the American Revolution to the War in Iraq. My aunt Dorothy, who worked for the army in World-War II, keeps a cockle-shell pot holder from the emporer of Japan's home, and was vacationing under gunfire in Havana the day that Fidel Castro siezed power. I designed the cover for the book, which features the title in perspective and an American flag.

My mother, now in her eighties, has written three self-published books about her family history in her retirement. The books are Foot Prints in the Sand, for the Nelson family, Sodbusters, for the Reed family, and Far from Home, for our soldiers. When the Minnesota Historical Society displayed Sodbusters, the Paul Hicks family from Seattle was vacationing here. They saw the book, which mentioned their relatives near Raymond, Minnesota, and so they visited my mother in Elk River to catch up on family history.

In the 1960's my father was a white-collar construction manager in Minneapolis and St. Paul. He worked for the local concrete company that built the cities' hospitals, skyscrapers, and museums. As he sat on planning committees, he helped to design features of the Twin Cities' most famous buildings, and he worked with the cities' elite contractors, business leaders, socialites, and museum directors. I would hear about this around the dinner table in my childhood. When the Beatles arrived, he had the job to go to the parade stadium and check and repair the concrete under the bleachers, to be sure the kids would be safe. I remember that he brought eggs from our farm, in case the English boys were hungry. He finished his inspection alone under the bleachers. But the Beatles were rehearsing for their concert, so he sat and listened.

Reviews

"Poignant."--Angela Morgenstern, senior director, PBS Interactive, "The War"