We were saddened to learn last week of the death of PFLAG Juneau volunteer Steve Reese, whose body was found on Tuesday, August 2 in the waters of the Herbert River below Herbert Glacier. Troopers found his car earlier along the Herbert Glacier trailhead, and speculated that he might have slipped and fell while hiking the steep trail.  Steve was reported missing the day before, after friends and family had not heard from him since Friday.

Our condolences go out to his children, family and friends, and to all who knew him. A celebration of his life will be held in Juneau on September 7 — his birthday —at a place yet to be determined.

UPDATE: Steve Reese’s Celebration of Life

Come for food, music and conversation. Vegetarian cuisine, energy drinks, diet pepsi and other favorites of Steve’s will be served. Please bring written memories, stories or letters about Steve. They will be treasured by his family.

Come as you are. Dress up or down.

• Date/time: Wednesday, September 7, from 5-9 pm
• Location: Parkshore Condominium Clubhouse, 800 F Street (Behind Downtown Fire Hall), Juneau (see map)
• Further info: See Facebook event page and Bent Alaska’s post on the Celebration of Life.

Here is the obituary his family prepared for the Juneau Empire:

James Steven “Steve” Reese, age 42, of Juneau, Alaska died an accidental death while hiking at Herbert Glacier near Juneau where his body was found on August 2nd. Steve was born in Miami, Florida on September 7, 1968 to John J. Reese and Norma Carol Tatom Reese. He graduated from Barbe High School in Lake Charles, Louisiana and obtained his nursing degree from Lamar University in Orange, Texas. He was married to Juanita J. Freese in 1989 and moved to Juneau, Alaska with her in 2000 along with their son Jordan K. Reese and daughter Janae B. Reese.

Steve was employed by Bartlett Regional Hospital and worked there for eleven years as a registered nurse and most recently as nursing supervisor. He loved serving as a nurse in all departments at Bartlett Hospital, frequently volunteered for special projects, and was highly respected for his caring attitude with patients and other staff. Steve was strongly professional and well loved by those with whom he worked.

Steve was also an active volunteer within the Juneau community, sharing his time and skills with Tongass Alaska Girls Scouts, Juneau NOW, Juneau Human Rights Council, PFLAG Juneau, Juneau-Douglas High School Site Council as nurse representative, and several other local organizations. He was also an advocate for the civil rights of gay and lesbian citizens, an animal rights activist and vegetarian, and supported PETA. Steve’s children were very important to him and he could often be seen in the community in the midst of activities with Janae and/or Jordan.

Steve is survived by his daughter Janae age 12, and son Jordan, age 20, both of Juneau. He is also survived by his mother Carol Reese of Owenboro, Kentucky; his sister Cher Reese Eaves of Pleasant Ridge, Kentucky; his step mother Beth Reese of Lake Charles, Louisiana; his aunt B. G. Tatom of Plant City, Florida; and his former wife of 21 years Juanita Reese. He was preceded in death by his infant daughter Susan J. Reese, his father John Reese, and his grand parents Virgil and Lillian Tatom.

A celebration of Steve’s life will be held on September 7, 2011 (Steve’s birthday) here in Juneau at a place to be determined. Friends are encouraged to write their memories and stories about how Steve touched their lives and bring the anecdotes to the celebration on September 7th for inclusion in a scrapbook that his children can treasure. Donations can be made in Steve’s memory to the Girl Scouts of Alaska for use in assisting members of Janae’s troop with travel plans that have long been anticipated. Checks can be made out to Girl Scouts of Alaska Troop 4026 and either mailed to PO Box 33441 Juneau, AK 99803 or deposited in First National Bank of Alaska account #30758437.

Steve Reese has been described by one Juneau friend on the obituary’s guestbook as a “quiet, deeply committed man.” His commitment and care for his community is evident in the time he took to write letters to the editor of the Juneau Empire on a host of issues — local politics, environmental concerns about Lower Slate Lake, flouridation of city drinking water, human rights — to name but a few.

One such letter, given the title “You hit the nail right on the head, Linda” and published on Friday, April 27, 2007, responded to an earlier letter about the “the band of minorities that it’s socially acceptable to hate” — such as LGBT people.  Steve Reese wrote, in part,

It is fear and ignorance that makes a person so hateful as to compare two peoples’ love to “being married to an animal” (Honda Head, who was quoted in an Empire article on April 1). Which person is the animal in Head’s analogy? If they are both less than human to Head, then wherein lies her perceived threat to human society? More reprehensible than Head’s argument is that of any Christian who dares to use the scriptures in defense of their hateful acts. Christ said the greatest commandment is to love God, and the second commandment in line to that is that you love your neighbor as you love yourself. “On these two commandments,” He said, “hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:40). This last statement is an important one for Christian fundamentalists who lose the spirit in their attempts to spin the letter of the law. If your Bible tells you to hate or to do hateful things, then you are reading your Bible wrong.

To hate someone so much that you will go out of you way to take away their human rights is not Christian, and it’s not in the interest of societal good. Same-sex and other unmarried heads of families have as much a right to support their families as married, heterosexual heads of households. As human beings, they deserve the same respect, the same compensation and the same representation as other human beings. Being in the majority does not make us better or more deserving than the minority; it only makes us more capable of persecuting them.

Rest in peace.