Douglas Wainwright Reid

Douglas Wainwright Reid of Naples, Florida passed away on Friday, February 19, 2021 at Longwood at Oakmont.  He was born December 1, 1948 in Pittsburgh, the eldest child of Anice Ridall (Sugar) and Charles Allen Reid Jr.  He was predeceased by his parents and his grandparents, Anice Daniel and Edmund Wainwright Ridall Sr. and Billie Ellwood and Charles A. Reid Sr.

Doug was educated at Shady Side Academy from the Junior School, through the inauguration of the Middle School and to the first year of the Senior School.  He then attended the Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey from where he graduated in 1966.  He received an English-Speaking Union Fellowship to attend the Cranleigh School in Cranleigh, Surrey, England for a year.  Returning to America to attend Denison University in Granville, Ohio, he received a BA in 1971.  Doug earned an MBA from the Graduate School Business at the University of Pittsburgh in 1972.

His employment career began in Chicago in 1972 with L.W. Biegler Inc., a subsidiary of Crum & Forster Insurance Companies.  Doug transferred to New York City in 1977 to head the branch there.  He was an underwriter of Directors and Officers liability insurance, which he helped create together with underwriters at Lloyd’s of London.  Xerox Corporation bought Crum & Forster in 1982, by which time he was Executive Vice President of L.W. Biegler Inc. and Crum & Forster Managers Inc.  He retired from business in 1984.

Doug maintained a residence in Sag Harbor, New York and acquired a place in Naples, Florida where he became a Florida resident.   In retirement, Doug learned about genealogy and family history.  He volunteered at the Naples Community Library and the Family History Library of the LDS Church in Fort Myers, Florida.  He began a deep study of his own family history in 1987, which he continued to his death.  In 1987, he reestablished his connection with the Wainwright family compound in Northern Ontario at Rocky Reef on Ahmic Lake where he built a home, which became the focus of the second half of his life.  Luckily, he was able to enjoy half the year in Canada and half the year in Naples, Florida.  He traveled extensively for family history and was pleased to be able to visit the graves of almost every one he identified in the family, including in Yorkshire, England and Scotland.  He also continued research at many great libraries around the United States, including many trips to the vast holdings of the LDS Church of Salt Lake City, including a six-week residency there.

Doug leaves behind his sister, Blair Reid McKean and her husband, Bradford Darr McKean, of Naples, Florida; a brother, Scott Wallace Reid and his wife, Anne Gilmore Reid, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and his sister, Lisa Reid Mayer and her husband, Robert Bruce Mayer, of Sun Valley, Idaho and San Francisco, California.  Also surviving are the children and grandchildren of his siblings and a rather large group of cousins and relatives uncovered by his research.  He felt very close to all of them.

A Private interment will be at the Homewood Cemetery beside his parents and Reid grandparents.  Doug has asked that some of his remains be scattered at Rocky Reef, Ahmic Lake, Ontario with his Ridall and Wainwright forebears.

Memorial contributions may be made in Doug’s name to Magnetawan Watershed Land Trust (www.mwlt.org), 340 Fish Lake Road, Novar, ON P0A 1R0, Canada, or to a charity of your choice. Arrangements by John A. Freyvogel Sons, Inc. (freyvogelfuneralhome.com)

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