A Memorial Celebration for the late Paul Reiter will be held 10 a.m. Saturday, May 14 at the Carmelite Monastery, 9150 Clayton Rd.
Reiter, the beloved, longtime circulation manager for The St. Louis American, was murdered Monday at his home in South St. Louis at the age of 58. St. Louis police said it appeared he was shot after he interrupted the burglary of a neighbor’s home. An 18-year-old suspect was taken into custody last night and another suspect is being pursued.
Reiter’s sister, Marty Wofford, said she knew her modest brother would not want a public memorial service, “but we need it.”
She said Reiter’s son, Christopher Paul Reiter, 20, was consulting with the family on how to dispose of his father’s body.
Wofford also asked that people who come to the public memorial celebration bring a card on which they have written a memory of Paul.
“We especially want Christopher to have these memories of his father,” she said.
Reiter’s murder – which police believe is connected to two other burglaries and another murder – has received major media coverage since his body was discovered Monday evening.
It sparked the activation of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s Violent Offense Team, which was responsible for the apprehension of the suspect. It also resulted in the calling of a special Community Outreach Meeting 7 p.m. Wednesday night at Grbcic’s Restaurant & Banquet Center, 4071 Keokuk.
Wofford said the family was touched by the outpouring of sympathy and love for her brother. The St. Louis American has had the same response to an enormous community response to the murder of their colleague. St. Louis American Publisher Donald M. Suggs, who had a deeply close relationship with Reiter for 22 years, appeared on two St. Louis network news broadcasts Tuesday discussing the painful loss.
“The upward trajectory of The St. Louis American is inextricably bound to the invaluable contribution of Paul Reiter,” Suggs told his staff.
“He brought unselfish dedication to an essential but unheralded part of this newspaper. He enjoyed the respect and admiration of his many colleagues at The American over these many years. We can never repay what he did for us. We mourn his senseless murder because he was an absolutely essential part of us and what we aspire to do.”
Suggs’ daughter, Dina M. Suggs, learned the news from Washington, D.C. and left her thoughts on the initial, brief news story posted on the paper’s website.
“Paul was a true original, and I am honored to to have worked with him and to have known him for over 20 years,” wrote Dina M. Suggs, vice president of the St. Louis American Foundation.
“Honest, caring, unpretentious, conscientious, quirky, curious, truth-seeking and dedicated to his son, family, The St. Louis American, its staff, freelancers, stringers and friends. There will never be another Paul Reiter, and he will always be sorely missed. That Paul has been killed in what appears to be such a reckless and senseless way is even more devastating. May Paul rest in peace.”
