Barry Reed

 

BARRY REED
PATRICIA PARIS REED (Gables '62)
26730 SE Rugg Road
Damascus, Oregon 97089

frenchbarge@yahoo.com

Insurance

Patricia Paris and I married in Sept. 1963. I was in the Navy for the first couple years of our marriage and then we returned to Miami. I became a police officer on Miami Beach while Pat stayed at home raising our three children. We both graduated from Florida International University in 1976. We decided that we wanted to raise our children in a smaller town, sold everything, bought a motor home and began travelling the U.S. in search of that town. We found it in the small coastal town of Mendocino, California where I became a home builder and then a real estate agent and Pat became involved in the school system. We opened a magazine newspaper store (The Paperboy) and then opened 2 video stores (The Village Vidiot). We sold these businesses and moved to Hawaii to be close to our oldest daughter and her two children.

Later we moved to Oklahoma City to manage some rental properties that we had bought from the profits from the sale of our businesses. We never really liked Oklahoma City but managed to stay there for 10 years. During that time I worked in the home mortgage industry and Pat attended Paralegal school. Eventually Pat obtained a job with a state agency. That lasted for 7 great years. Then itchy feet prevailed and we bought a canal barge in France in the Burgundy region. We spent a year converting it to a luxurious 3 cabin barge, taking barge driving courses (I am a qualified barge Captain!!) and generally soaking up the wonderful people of France. Then 9/11 happened and we didn't get any bookings because folks were reluctant to travel to Europe. Sadly, we decided that we would have to sell our dream and return to the States for our next stage of life. We bought another motor home and began travelling once again. After visiting with family we wound up in the Portland, Oregon area. I returned to the Mortgage industry for a while but found that I was happier selling insurance (can you say "AFLAC"?). Recently, Pat has retired but still manages to work for a local attorney on a part-time basis.

We live in the country and love it. Our two daughters are living here in the Portland area. Jennifer, our oldest daughter, and her husband and sons are here. She works in the Mortgage industry and so does Jessica, our youngest daughter. Our son, Brian, lives in San Diego with his wife and 3 children. He is an officer in the Navy and once he retires in the next few years will be moving up to the Portland area. Our oldest grandson has joined the military (Marines) and is currently serving in Iraq.