Henry H. Reichner Jr., 98, formerly of Chestnut Hill, a business and civic leader and a decorated Marine Corps officer who served in three wars, died April 12 at Cathedral Village in Andorra, where he had resided for the past 10 years.
Col. Reichner held many business and civic leadership positions after retiring from the Marines in 1968. He joined the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce that year and retired as executive vice president of the organization in 1986, when he received the 38th annual William Penn Award.
He had also served as a director and chair of the Philadelphia Port Corporation, director of the Maritime Exchange for the Delaware River and Bay, director of the Penn’s Landing Corporation, president, vice-president and director of the Philadelphia Belt Line Railroad, director of the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, and CEO, president and senior director of the PENJERDE Council.
He also was active in a number of civic organizations, including the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, which he served as president from 1981 to 1984 and vice chair from 1977 to 1980. He was the first president of the Schuylkill River Greenway Association, a director of the World Affairs Council, a life trustee of the Coriell Institute for Medical Research, and a trustee of the Center for Aquatic Sciences at Adventure Aquarium.
In his third career, he served as an arbitrator for the NYSE and NASDAQ and sat on the board of Independence Blue Cross until macular degeneration took its toll. Even though legally blind, he managed to write his memoirs and continued to build dry stone walls well into his 90s.
Born in Chestnut Hill and raised in Germantown, Col Reichner was a graduate of Germantown Academy and the University of Pennsylvania. He joined the Marines in February 1941 and after Pearl Harbor served as an artillery officer in the Pacific Theater. He saw action on Guadalcanal and in the central Solomon Islands, and, within weeks of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, he flew into that city as part of the Allied occupation of Japan.
He went on to serve in the Korean War and was awarded the Bronze Star with a Combat “V” and a Silver Star in lieu of a second Bronze Star with Combat “V.” In the following years, he attended and taught at the Naval War College, participated in atmospheric nuclear weapon testing at Sandia Base in New Mexico, served as the Chief of the U.S. Naval Mission to Haiti during the regime of “Papa Doc” Duvalier, and was stationed aboard ship for the blockade of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
In the mid-1960s, he served with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, assigned to the J-5 Far East Division, and concluded his career with a year in Vietnam, following which he was awarded the Legion of Merit.
He is survived by his wife of 64 years, the former Julia Ann “Judy” Spencer; sons John and Hank; a daughter, Robin Franklin; four grandchildren and two step-grandchildren. Three siblings preceded him in death.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 3, at St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Whitemarsh, Bethlehem Pike and Camp Hill Road, Fort Washington. Donations in his memory may be made to the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. – WF
