Jack Reames Remembered by Former Colleague and Friend
By: Melissa Foy
Updated: March 14, 2013
Authorities in Central Texas release positive identity of a Wichita Falls man found inside a burning truck.
Lieutenant Bob Shelton with the Blanco County Sheriff's Office says that man is 54-year-old Jack Reames.
His body was found in a burning pickup Tuesday night outside Johnson City, about 30 miles west of Austin.
Wichita Falls police say Reames was reported missing Tuesday morning.
Reames is described as a family man, whose priorities in life were his church, family, kids, and the community.
Brandon Brown, president-CEO of the Wichita Falls YMCA, says when he was just starting his career, Reames helped him out, and he couldn't have asked for a better mentor.
"I was fresh out of college. I had my brand new job at the YMCA. I was the sports director, and being new out of college, I was really nervous about things and how to make good decisions," Brown says. "The chairman of the advisory committee was Jack Reames and he held my hand the whole way, at least for the first couple years."
Most recently, Reames worked as a certified public accountant for Hupp, Bauer, Hanson, and Lewis, but Brown remembers him from his YMCA days, coaching his own children in baseball through the Y's program.
"Jack was one of those guys that would come out and stay late," Brown says. "After the game was over with at midnight, if it was a tournament, he and his wife would be here picking up trash and I'd say, 'Oh Jack, you don't need to do that.' And he did it anyway. They wouldn't have it any other way."
Brown says as far as he's concerned, Reames had it all.
"The Y core values are respect, responsibility, honesty, and caring, and I'll tell you Jack, he had all that," Brown says.
He says Reames is the kind of person we should all form our lives after.
"He was a great man. We'll miss him big time," Brown says. "Let's learn from this. Let's be more like Jack. Everybody can do it. If we all do a little of what Jack had, it'd be a better place."
Blanco County authorities say autopsy results for Reames are pending, but right now, investigators are classifying his death as suspicious.
