John Dale Reynen

1937 - 2018

John Dale Reynen passed away on the morning of June 17, 2018 at his home in Sacramento surrounded by family. His birth and youth were in Hollandale, Minnesota, where he grew up on a potato and onion farm as the youngest of eight children. After graduating from Central College in Pella, Iowa, he moved to California to attend Stanford Law School. Following law school, he came to Sacramento to work for the California Division of Highways, focusing on eminent domain cases. Not entirely satisfied with the practice of law, he began to conduct real estate transactions in his after hours, initially investing in fourplexes with family friend Ed Purdy. Shortly thereafter, he left law practice and joined in partnership with Christo Bardis a business union that would last half of a century. Around this time, his first marriage ended in divorce and he met his wife Judith, who would be the love of his life. In the ensuing decades, Reynen and Bardis and its various affiliated entities would build thousands of homes and develop thousands of acres, both in the greater Sacramento area and in northern Nevada. In business, he was always one to empower others, seeking to hire the best people and set them free to do whatever they could. He was a leader who listened much more than he talked. He was said to have had an iron stomach not just in the virtual imperviousness to motion sickness that made him a bold sailor and fisherman but in the astonishing calm with which he faced near personal financial ruin during the 2008 crash. In all a spects of his life, panic was unknown to him, and if fear ever entered his mind, he never acknowledged it to anyone else. Over the years, he took up a myriad of leisure activities in succession: bridge, sailing, racquetball, scuba diving, golf, beer brewing, skiing and hunting around the world, and sport fishing, to name a few. In each he attained a substantial level of mastery, in some instances despite having a partially paralyzed leg. One example was his second-place finish in the 2006 Bisbee's Black & Blue, the world's largest marlin tournament. He and Judy also enjoyed traveling the world, especially via cruises, many of which included duplicate bridge as a bonus. One of their many recent cruises took them through the Panama Canal, which must have reminded him of a time four decades earlier when he sailed a small ketch from New York to San Francisco. He provided sage advice on things big and small over a great breadth of topics to family members, friends and business colleagues. This genuine interest in and compassion towards others led to successful relationships both in and out of the office. John Reynen was an exceptional friend, partner, and father to many. With inspiration from his humble rural beginnings, he put a supreme value on education and provided scholastic financial assistance to many developing children and young adults. In many ways, he lived for his family, and he ontinued to relish their camaraderie even as his body failed him. He was there for them and they for him until the moment of his final breath. He is survived by his wife Judy; son John L. "Jack" and his wife Miriam; son Christo John; daughter Leah "Dede"; stepson John and his wife Lesley; stepdaughter Laura and her husband Chris; brother Albert; sisters Betty, Bernice, Marge and Jane; and many grandchildren, nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his parents John Dirk and Pearl, his brother Bill, his sister Antoinette, and his stepson Matthew. A memorial service will be held at the Crocker Art Museum, 216 O St., Sacramento, CA 95814 at 1:00 p.m. on Monday June 25, 2018. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Crocker Art Museum or to the Sacramento Children's Home.