Remembering Reiber

Students, faculty, alumni and friends gathered together on Sunday, April 24 to honor and memorialize the life of former communications faculty member Don Reiber.

Reiber was an associate professor of communications and the director of the Department of Communications Media Services at the University of Toledo for nearly 40 years.

Mike Towbridge, an alumni of UT who graduated in 2007, was one of many former students of Reiber’s who attended the service.

“He was more than a professor; professor doesn’t fit him,” Towbridge said. “He was everything; he was the kind of person that no matter what, no matter when, if you got ahold of him he would do anything he could to make it work for you.”

Rachel Nearhoof / IC

Kind words were said about Reiber and his time at UT at the memorial service, including those by close friends and coworkers at the university. Jackie Layng, a communications professor, worked alongside Reiber in the communications department for 19 years.

“One of my favorite memories, when we moved from the Scott Park campus over to Rocket Hall, we didn’t have a lot of furniture,” Layng said. “We needed chairs for the students to sit in, and they were throwing out chairs at Rocket Park, so he and I dressed in all black, took a van and kind of, basically dumpster dove, and were able to outfit the studio with the classroom.”

Layng said that he was an incredible work partner and she shared many wonderful memories with her co-worker.

As a longtime professor in the communication department, Reiber left his fair share of memorable impressions on his students. Several shared stories to remember him at the memorial service.

“He was always very meticulous about putting up his Christmas tree lights,” said Holly Layman, a 2009 UT alumna. “And I kept in great contact with him the entire time I was in school and after I graduated and he sent me a Christmas ornament, in the shape of a Christmas tree because everyone needs to have a Christmas tree in their house and their apartment. I still hang that on my tree today. He sent a lovely card with it; he was just the best. There’s no other way to put it.”

Rachel Nearhoof / IC

The memories shared by those present gave a feeling of the type of person Reiber was to those who didn’t know him as closely. Dee Drummond, an associate lecturer in the communications department, said that seeing the students come together after Reiber’s passing was truly remarkable, and something that she will never forget.

“I honestly feel like I’m learning from Don by listening and watching all these people, and these lives he’s touched. So, it makes me wish I would have had him for a teacher, and it makes me wish that I’d have known him better,” Drummond said.

A point that nearly each of the speakers seemed to reiterate was Reiber’s legacy living on through the students that he taught and worked with.

“Everybody that ever had more than five minutes to talk to him, you really felt like you knew him personally and on a deep level, and he knew you,” Towbridge said. “You just knew that he was there for you no matter what.”

At the end of the memorial service, there was the dedication of the Don Reiber Media Control Room in Savage Arena. Reiber spent much of his time at the university working with the athletics department and producing sports broadcasts.

“He ate, slept and breathed broadcasting and there was just nobody like him,” Layng said. “He was truly an amazing person, and it was awesome was serving with him for 19 years and having this amazing work partnership that helped us build the program that we have today.”