From the time he was made an Army staff sergeant before he was 20, through his years as owner of his own tool company, to his glory days as captain of a successful racing sailboat, John L. “Jack” Reynertson was a leader.
“He led all his life,” said his wife of 55 years, Patricia. “It was just natural instinct.”
That instinct took him to the top of Dresser Industries’ national hand tool division and then to his own company, Sturtevant Richmont in Franklin Park, which still is run by three of his sons and a son-in-law. It also helped him lead his sailboat, crewed by family and friends, to first place in its division in the 1983 Race to Mackinac.
“He was the kind of person who would hire people who were qualified and let them do their job,” said his son, Raymond. “He was no micromanager.”
Mr. Reynertson, 77, died Wednesday, Dec. 3, in his Bloomingdale home of hepatitis C, a disease he had battled for six years.
He was a self-taught mechanic and fix-it guy who learned from his father, a Milwaukee Road engineer. While attending Lane Technical High School in Chicago, Mr. Reynertson built his own sailboat as his wood shop project.
The 8-foot dinghy was his first boat and later was used by his children to learn how to sail.
Always wearing a captain’s hat, Mr. Reynertson was the picture of a captain on the boats he raced over the years. His most successful was Cetacean, a 40-foot sailboat that he led to six top-three placements over 12 years in the 1980s and 1990s in the Mackinac race.
After graduating from high school, Mr. Reynertson enlisted in the Army toward the end of World War II and was sent to Hawaii, where he trained recruits.
After the war, Mr. Reynertson got married and began a family while attending Drake University in Des Moines, where he received a bachelor’s degree in marketing in 1949. He began a series of jobs managing retailers, working for Kresge, Wieboldt’s and Montgomery Ward.
In 1969 a headhunter for Dresser sought out Mr. Reynertson to head the company’s hand tool division, and Bill Downey, a Dresser executive, hired him.
“He just appeared to me as a down-to-earth kind of guy who was willing to roll up his sleeves,” Downey said.
In 1984 Dresser decided to sell its companies, including a small, floundering one, Sturtevant Richmont. Mr. Reynertson took early retirement and bought Sturtevant, investing in new equipment and crafting a marketing scheme that helped make the company a leader in torque measurement equipment.
It also gave him a chance to work with his sons, Raymond, Donald and John Jr.
“All of us have gotten along extremely well,” said Raymond Reynertson, now company president. “And it was a good opportunity to work with your father, something not a lot of guys get to do. He was just a great guy.”
Other survivors include another son, Ronald; two daughters, Gloria Krecl and Mariann Johnston; a brother, Stan; a sister, Ardele Bryntesen; and 14 grandchildren.
Visitation will be held from 3 to 9 p.m. Monday in Salerno’s Rosedale Chapels, 450 W. Lake St., Roselle. Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Tuesday in St. Isidore Catholic Church, 25W260 W. Army Trail Rd., Bloomingdale.
