Stewart Robert Reid was a 23-year-old bomber pilot with the 8th Air Force awaiting his first mission when a colonel approached him at an English air base in June 1944 and told the pilot to fire up his B-24 and prepare for take-off.
“I want to see what you and your crew can do,” the colonel said.
Minutes later they were airborne and flying over the French coast where, from more than 30,000 feet, Reid and his crew witnessed D-Day and the Allied invasion of Normandy.
It was the beginning of a siege that would see Reid fly 35 combat missions bombing German war factories in Europe. He would survive being shot down twice: once over the English Channel, and the second time over Belgium, for which he was awarded a Silver Star for bravery after landing his wounded bomber in a field and saving all lives on board.
When Reid returned home to Austell in Jan. 1945 and married his childhood sweetheart, Stephanie “Stevie” Berry, he, like so many of his generation who fought in World War II, chose not to talk about the war. It would be decades, said his son Stewart Reid Jr., before his father mentioned his heroic life.
“I was watching a war picture on TV and he said ‘that’s what I did,” said his son. “Then I started asking him and he started telling me. He was real modest about what he did.” Reid, 91, died Jan. 3 at his Austell home after a long illness. Funeral services are 2 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 5, at First United Methodist Church of Austell.
Reid decided not to become an airline pilot after the war, said his son “because he said a commercial pilot was like driving a taxi – it wasn’t any fun if nobody was shooting at you.” But, if his post-war career was grounded, it was hardly low profile.
He opened an heating and air conditioning business in Austell and ran for public office, serving three terms on the city council and three terms as mayor from 1966 to 1972. Among his achievements, said his family, was keeping the city-owned gas company from being sold by traveling to Chicago and finding investors to shore up its finances.
Austell Mayor Joe Jerkins, who has known Reid since the early 70s and will be one of his pall bearers, said he was one of the stalwarts of the city who will be leaving a “good mark” on Austell beyond the overpass in town that Jerkins and the council named after Reid.
When the overpass was built in 1999 — over railroad tracks that split the city and was dangerous for school children to cross — Reid told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “I’m not a bragging man, but this is quite an honor.” Jerkins said the landmark is fitting for “all the contributions he made to this city.”
Reid is survived by wife of 68 years, Stevie; his son, daughter Jenny Reid Pomeroy, four grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.
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