Myles Lee Reed Sr. recently celebrated his 100th birthday on the South Side, surrounded by family and friends (Photo Credit: Tacuma R. Roeback).
A Black man who has lived through 17 presidential administrations, six major wars, the civil rights movement, and the most significant historical events of the 20th century turned 100 years old on the South Side of Chicago over the weekend.
Family, friends and neighbors gathered at a senior residence facility community room to celebrate Myles Lee Reed Sr., a Lorman, Mississippi native, U.S. Army veteran, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. member and University of Nebraska alum.
When Mr. Reed was asked what it felt like to celebrate this birthday milestone, he admitted that it was hard to put into words.
“It’s good to be here,” he finally said, smiling behind his wraparound orange-tinted shades as he observed everyone in the room who gathered to celebrate him. “I’m glad to see so many people who took the time in this weather to come out and wish me a happy 100th birthday.”
A Man of Many Hats: Veteran, Athlete, Executive, and Family Man
Myles Lee Reed Sr. with his family members at his 100th birthday party (Photo Credit: Tacuma R. Roeback).
Mr. Reed has and continues to lead a remarkable yet uncommon life in his century of existence. Terms like “Renaissance man” or “polymath” get overused. Still, not many people have excelled in multiple domains of life quite like Mr. Reed, who served his country, excelled in academics and athletics and achieved in business.
After relocating to Chicago in the 1950s, Mr. Reed became a semi-professional baseball player with the Dukes of the Washington Park Baseball League, where he played until he was 41.
He starred as a pitcher, possessing a knack for fooling opposing batters with his beguiling arsenal, which consisted of a knuckleball, screwball and “flutterball.” He would transition from player to coach with the Orioles of the Jackie Robinson West Little League in Brainard Park.
Mr. Reed would take that success from the diamond to the boardroom.
While raising a family, he served as a job development specialist and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Officer, working for companies like Olivet Institute, Jobs Now Project, Chicago Urban League, Ada S. McKinley Foundation and Borg-Warner Corporation, where he was one of its first Black executives in the 1960s.
He was also civic-minded, having run twice for Alderman of the 21st ward.
A Father’s Impact: Lessons in Reading, Integrity, and Imagination
Myles Lee Reed Sr. with his sons (Photo Credit: Tacuma R. Roeback).
But among those countless lives he’s influenced, Mr. Reed left perhaps the most indelible mark on his family, of course.
His son Darryl, who helped organize the birthday celebration, said his dad modeled integrity but also cultivated in him a love of reading and baseball.
“I remember asking him, ‘Daddy, teach me to read,’ because we’d be driving, and sometimes I looked at the signs and wanted to know what they said,” Darryl recalled, “So, he actually helped me to learn how to read.”
Darryl, an actor living in Los Angeles, said it’s a skill that continues to serve him well.
“I have to say that my reading ability has helped me get through a lot of auditions, a lot of cold readings and such,” he said. “And it was because my imagination was spurred at an early age through him.”
During the party, Linda Mason presented Mr. Reed with a proclamation from the office of 5th Ward Ald. Desmon C. Yancy.
A Milestone Few Achieve: The Honor of Turning 100
Myles Lee Reed Sr. blows out his candles (Photo Credit: Tacuma R. Roeback).
But the party culminated when all who gathered to celebrate Mr. Reed placed an Oreo birthday cake before him topped with three candles that formed the numerals “100,” a milestone that less than one percent, in fact only 0.027%, of people born in the U.S. will ever reach, according to research from the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine at Boston University.
With an easy smile and the mental clarity younger people would aspire to possess, Mr. Reed, bedecked in his fedora, shades and gray suit, coolly blew out that candle himself, waving to everyone in that room who assembled to celebrate him.
For a man who has accomplished so much and epitomizes longevity, it was only natural to ask this: “What’s your secret?”
“I wish I could collect it,” Mr. Reed said.
“But it’s just a compilation of things: take it a day at a time, no strict formula, and just a matter of trying to treat everybody right and expect people to treat you right in return.”
Here are more photos from Mr. Reed’s 100th birthday celebration:
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