Carlos was promoted to Data Scientist III at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Carlos was promoted to Data Scientist III at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
John Joseph Reed, Jr., 74, passed away Sunday, March 29, 2020, after a hard fight with the coronavirus COVID-19. John leaves behind his daughter Rebecca (Lyndon) Linville and grandchildren Sydney, Isaac and Gunnar of Olympia, WA; and son Justin (Heather) Reed and grandchildren Madeline and Harrison of Edmonds, WA. Also surviving him are brothers Michael (Barbara) Reed, Ronald (Vicki) Reed, and sister Nancy (Alan) Stephenson as well as many nieces, nephews, and cousins; his late wife’s family; and countless friends. John was preceded in death by his wife Gretchen, his parents, John and Gloria Reed, and his brothers Kenneth, Gerald and Roger Reed. John was born in Galveston, TX, on April 22, 1945. He grew up in La Marque, TX. In 1967, John joined the United States Army and was a 2nd Lieutenant stationed at Fort Lewis when he went on a blind date with Gretchen Helen Edmonds, a student at Pacific Lutheran University and, as they say, the rest is history. They married on February 28, 1969, shortly before John was sent to Vietnam. When John returned from Vietnam and after Gretchen’s graduation from PLU, John and Gretchen moved to Houston, Texas where John attended the University of Houston, earning his bachelor’s degree in 1971 and becoming a CPA shortly after. John worked as an accountant for a firm in Houston and, after the birth of their daughter, Rebecca, moved his family to Washington State in January 1977, settling in the city of Edmonds. In 1979 they welcomed son Justin into the world. John retired in 2014 after 25 years as a financial consultant with the law firm Oles, Morrison, Rinker u0026 Baker. John was a family man and spent a lot of time driving between Edmonds and Olympia, where he enjoyed doing puzzles with his grandchildren as well as attending their sporting events, musicals, plays and just generally being a supportive dad and grandpa. John was also very involved in his adopted hometown of Edmonds. He was president of the Alliance of Citizens for Edmonds (ACE) from 2006 to 2019, having retired from his role only a few months ago. He was serving as a member of the Edmonds Citizens Housing Commission and was a former member of the Edmonds Planning Board. John was passionate about retaining Edmonds’ small-town atmosphere and livability and donated a significant amount of time to supporting these efforts. Funeral arrangements will be made once restrictions are lifted for gatherings and family and friends can safely assemble. Should you wish to make a donation in John’s honor, please consider donating to support the current efforts to treat COVID-19 patients, the medical professionals helping them, or other charity supporting coronavirus relief efforts.
Tommy Gregory Leaves Houston Airport System for a Job in Seattle
Tommy Gregory Leaves Houston Airport System for a Job in Seattle
by Brandon Zech October 9, 2018
Tommy Gregory has told Glasstire that he is leaving his position at the Houston Airport System for a job in Seattle. His new job, as the Public Art Director of the Seattle–Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac), which is owned and operated by the Port of Seattle, will involve overseeing the conservation of the airport’s collection, the commissioning of new works, and the organization of temporary exhibitions throughout the airport. Sea-Tac’s art collection includes pieces by internationally-known and regional artists, including Frank Stella, Louise Nevelson, Sam Gilliam and Robert Rauschenberg, among others.
Gregory began his career at the Houston airports in 2014 as the collection’s curator, and in 2017 was named its new Public Art Program Director and Curator. During his tenure working for Houston’s three airports — Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), William P. Hobby Airport and Ellington Airport — the institution’s art collection doubled in size, and Gregory shepherded along commissions and other pieces by many Texas artists, including Robert Pruitt, Christian Eckart, Joseph Havel and Krista Birnbaum. Partly because of Gregory’s efforts, more than 70% of works at IAH are either by Houston-based artists, or were purchased through Houston galleries. Gregory was also responsible for a reinstall of small-scale sculptural pieces throughout IAH’s concourses, highlighting the airport’s collection of Texas talent, and for numerous conservation efforts on pieces in the airports’ collection.
A longtime Texan, Gregory first got the taste for public art through his undergraduate work with artist Luis Jiménez in 2005 at the University of Houston. After that, he worked on public pieces with Paul Kittelson and Carter Ernst, and obtained his MFA from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Gregory’s public art administration began post-graduation, when he was hired as the Public Art Specialist for the City of San Antonio, where he worked on commissions by Chris Sauter and The Art Guys, among other projects. He then returned to Houston and worked at the Houston Arts Alliance on public art projects, before settling in at the Houston Airport System.
Gregory is also an artist in his own right. In the past few years, he has shown his works at FL!GHT Gallery and the UTSA Art Gallery in San Antonio and the Williams Tower Gallery and Redbud Gallery in Houston. He has also curated numerous exhibitions around Texas, and is a co-founder of Sculpture Month Houston.
Of his experiences in Houston, Gregory told Glasstire:
“My time in Houston, and Texas for that matter, has been one so enriching; I have bled and lost sleep over the arts in this place. The potential is so great in Houston, and in Texas… the creative people need to stay together, need to work together and need to not be afraid to critique each other… it is the only way we can get stronger. I will miss the city of Houston, I will miss driving to see shows at the Modern, and at Blue Star. I will miss having drinks and discussions with so many of the creative people that put in so much time to make things that never existed, in hopes to positively alter the way we all see the world. I really hope people know that I will do what I have done my whole career — I will put on shows here and in Seattle. It hasn’t set in yet, but I will be an emotional person the second I turn in my badges. I promise to make Texas proud in the PNW.”
Gregory is finishing up his stint in Houston with two Sculpture Month- and airport-related projects: an installation by Jo Ann Fleischhauer in a defunct air traffic control tower at IAH, and a group exhibition he organized at the 1940 Air Terminal Museum, a small, funky air travel museum near Hobby Airport.