On March 5, 1963, Christian Bryden Reed was born to James Scott and Sandra Lee Reed in Quincy, Illinois. He was the oldest of three children, with a brother Curtis Scott Reed born four years later, and a sister Shannon Kelly Reed, who was six years younger. His mother passed away about five years ago, while his father lives in Texas.
Chris and his family moved several times before he was in the seventh grade, where he then attended schools in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, and graduated from Sapulpa High School in 1981. He played saxophone in the band, played tennis, and swam. A Boy Scout, Chris attained to Eagle Scout.
Chris told me of “probably the most important man in my life,” Mr. Clark Waggoner. Mr. Waggoner, a carpenter, became Chris’s mentor, letting Chris work for him when he had time off from school. Having been brought up in, as Chris termed it, “a dysfunctional family,” which was also an “agnostic family,” he values the relationship he had with Mr. Waggoner from the age of sixteen until his graduation from college. Mr. Reed went on to explain, “He faithfully led me on a path of discovery of what it meant to be a Christian and patiently discipled me, answering all my questions, concerns, excuses.” Mr. Waggoner led Chris to Christ and baptized him when he came back from college before he went into the Navy. Clark and his wife Sandy came to the Reeds’ wedding in 1989, and they still keep in touch.
After high school, Chris attended the University of Missouri at Rolla, where he says he “got stupid,” leaving college for one and a half years. During this time, he drove a friend home to North Carolina, was invited to stay the summer, and began attending church and Bible studies with that family. Chris reported, “His mom continued what Clark started.” The Reeds are also still friends with the daughter of this family and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. John Allman.
Chris graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Missouri at Rolla in December of 1987, and then realized, “I needed to give myself to the Lord and try to change my direction.” It was at this point he was baptized before going into the Navy. He had been inspired by seeing the movie Top Gun, which inspiration lasted for eight years (1988-1996) before Chris realized he had to choose between the Navy and his family.
In those eight years, he became a lieutenant, a naval aviator, flew jets, came to Meridian to advanced jet training and stayed as a flight instructor. In Virginia Beach, Virginia, at Naval Air Station Oceana, he flew A6 Intruders off the USS Saratoga with the VA 35 Black Panthers squadron, did a cruise in the Mediterranean, then got out of the Navy.
I would have loved to have been a parent chaperone on the field trip of the second week of November 1988, when Lt. Chris Reed had been assigned the duty of a tour guide of a third grade class from West Lauderdale Elementary School. The teacher of that class was Miss Melesia Spence from Decatur, Mississippi. The love-struck couple were engaged January 1989 and married July 29th of that year. Brittany was born September 25, 1990, and her little brother Bryden was born September 18, 1995. The Reeds will have been married thirty years this July.
When Brittany was ten, Chris began coaching soccer for her team in Hickory and became serious about youth soccer. He coached recreational soccer for several years locally. When Brittany was invited to play for a club in Jackson, Chris became a team manager. Bryden was also invited to play in the same club, so Chris began to coach there. He then coached “Select Soccer,” the highest level of youth travel soccer during the kids’ formative years. At seventh grade, they began playing on the Newton County High School soccer teams.
After leaving the Navy, Chris’s work was as a mechanical engineer for a number of years with Peavey Electronics in Foley, Alabama, then in South Carolina, where he worked a couple years with Bose Electronics. Moving back to Decatur, he worked for Peavey again in various places. Deciding to put down their roots here, they built their house in Decatur in about the year 2000.
In about the year 2000, Chris went to work at Hol-Mac, a manufacturing company in Bay Springs, Mississippi, and finally spent some time with La-Z-Boy. His career was changing. He joined the Montgomery Institute in Meridian, doing economic development work, before working for Generation Ready, an educational consulting company in New York. As a national operations manager, he worked from home and got involved in software development. He now works for Cambria Solutions out of Sacramento, California, where he told me, “We provide information technology solutioning for state and federal agencies across the United States.” He works from his office daily in Jackson, Mississippi, where he also coaches a nine-and-under boys’ soccer team for the Mississippi Rush Club.
Both the Reeds are active in church, with Melesia teaching a first grade Sunday School class, and Chris, a deacon, teaching young adults. They also help the college ministry by going to Passion yearly. It is easy to see how the Providence of God brought these two together to form a family that would bring glory to His name.
As I talked with both Chris and Melesia, I knew I wanted to include more about the entire family. I finally decided to make this a two-part story, with next week’s article detailing Melesia’s life and the children’s as well. Thank you for reading!
Live for Jesus! He’s coming soon!
You may contact me at lagnesrussell@gmail.com or 601-635-3282.a
