Francis E. Reidy
Monday, December 25, 2006
Francis E. Reidy Sr., 87, who was superintendent of the photo engraving department at The Washington Post in the 1960s and '70s, died of melanoma Nov. 27 at Civista Medical Center in La Plata.
He was born in Washington and attended Holy Comforter School before graduating from Eastern High School. In 1937, he started an apprenticeship at The Post as a photo engraver and worked there until being inducted into the Army in 1941.
He shipped out on the Queen Mary in February 1942 and sailed around the world via Buenos Aires and Capetown and arrived in Australia. There he joined the advanced echelon of the 5th Air Force and moved to set up bases in New Guinea, where he participated in operations in Wewak and Simpson Harbor along with the Battle of the Coral Sea, which ended Japanese advances in the South Pacific.
After returning to Washington in 1944, Mr. Reidy married Mary Madelyn Tillett and worked at Lanman Engraving Co. for several years.
He returned to The Post in 1966. He had great admiration for Post owner Katharine Graham and loved the newspaper business. Mr. Reidy was superintendent of photo engravers during the volatile 1975 pressmen's strike at The Post.
He retired in 1979 and moved to Bethany Beach, Del., and later to La Plata.
Mr. Reidy served as president of Bishop Byrne Council of the Knights of Columbus in Oxon Hill and Post Scott Johnson Collins Veterans of Foreign Wars in Morningside.
A favorite pastime was after hours poker games. His family said he was a reservoir of knowledge about life in Washington before the war, telling stories about how to sneak onto the streetcars, sleeping outside at night in the hot summer at Griffith Stadium and delivering ice by horse and wagon with his father.
He was a lifelong fan of the Washington Redskins and loved trolling for rockfish in Southern Maryland.
Survivors include his wife of 62 years, of La Plata; seven children, Sharon Maxted of Pensacola, Fla., Sheila Gilbert, Francis E. Reidy Jr. and Michael Reidy, all of La Plata, Mary Carroll of Greeley, Colo., Madelyn Whittaker of Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Timothy Reidy of Colorado Springs; 17 grandchildren; and four great- grandchildren.