Reau Graves Jr.
Reau Graves Jr.
Reau Graves, the first child of Reau Graves Sr. and Rebecca Fly Graves, was born on October 2, 1936. His great journey on this earth came to a close on January 4, 2022, after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Surviving are his wife of 68 years, Elnora Lovell Graves; five daughters, Dianna Lynne Merrill and her husband Gary, Debra Leigh Dukart and her husband Dave, Sandra Denise Jordan and her husband Wayne, Donna Elaine LeBlanc and Daphne Reau Tracy; two siblings, Juila Gray and Ted Graves and his wife Sandy; 10 grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren; and two great-great-grandchildren.
Mr. Graves had a long and successful career in business management with many diverse responsibilities and opportunities. He had various agricultural activities in West Tennessee and Mississippi. Moving to Denver, Colo. in 1966 he got a degree in business accounting from the University of Denver, graduating cum laude. His work experiences there included office supplies and furniture retail stores and a mail order company, which manufactured outdoor clothing and equipment in kit form. He advanced to vice-president of the first and president of the second. After selling the kit company, Frostline, to Gillette, he started a 41-year association with an entrepreneur, Neal Blue, in Denver. Blue soon purchased what is now known as General Atomics in San Diego, Calif. There Mr. Graves’ responsibilities expanded greatly. He either managed or had reporting to him a varied number of entities. Among them were the Cray Super Computer Center in San Diego, natural gas companies in Utah and Ohio, a 13,000 acre plantation in Arkansas, San Miguel Valley Corporation in Telluride, Colo., and Cryotech, a company in Ft. Madison, Iowa, which produced and serviced de-icing products with branch locations in several cities. His last active on-site participation was with Sequoyah Fuels, a nuclear fuel processing plant in Gore, Okla. Since then he had worked from home in Medina, Tenn.
He had relinquished most of these responsibilities in early 2021 as his health deteriorated, but had continued as senior advisor and served on several of the official boards until his death.
One of the accomplishments of which he was most proud was moving back to Medina 30 years ago and seeing and helping in the growth of his hometown.
In his own words, “What a wonderful life I have had!”
Funeral services were held 11 a.m., Friday, January 7, 2022 in the chapel of Replogle-Lawrence Funeral Home with Dr. Don Thrasher officiating. Burial followed at Mount Zion Cemetery.
Pallbearers were Robert Burns, Kevin Clark, Jack Finch, Tommy Hopper, David Nelson, and Johnny Boswell.
Any memorials may be made to the charity of your choice.
Arrangements were entrusted to Replogle-Lawrence Funeral Home, Medina.