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GETTING TO KNOW HOA BOARD MEMBER JOHN REINER

Getting to know the Muirfield HOA Staff and Board: John Reiner

The first article in this series profiled our Muirfield HOA General Manager, Walter Zeier. This one is all about our longest serving member of the Muirfield Board of Directors, John Reiner.

John has been on the Board almost since its independence from the original developers, over 29 years now. And he has served the City of Dublin for 8 years on Planning and Zoning and now almost 20 years as a City Councilman. Yes, elected and re-elected over and over, and by large margins, John is probably the best known of our over 8,000 residents.

John is a landscape architect, and in fact is President of the state Board that oversees the profession. In his occupation, he and his brother are co-owners of the Oakland Nursery chain. That educational and occupational background has served us all well, as he shaped the City and Muirfield with vision for long range planning and much progressive legislation which included, but was not limited to, underground electrical systems, the aesthetics of beautifully planted and maintained median strips and flowers, signage, street trees, zoning buffers and a bike path system that is the most extensive in Ohio. Most recently, his talent for great landscaping led John and his wife to donate a complete renovation of Smurfield, the 6-hole walk-on golf course for residents. “Great for raising young duffers,” John says.

Mentioning his wife, Sheila, brings up that part of his life story. They met when both were Juniors at St. Francis DeSales High School, but didn’t marry until 9 years later, after John had serve in the military and got his business established. Married now for 44 years, they have four kids and a newly born eighth grandchild!

World travelers together and separately, the Reiners have been many places, including Romania early in their marriage where they were arrested by the Communists when they were on a mission to supply food and money to a young hostage, the daughter of the Romanian Poet Laureate who was then teaching at O.S.U.. A next-day trial, with John supplying American cigarettes and Russian vodka to various court officials resulted in a quick dismissal!

In a safer (they thought) part of the world the couple owned a home on the island of St. John, in the U.S. Virgin Islands … until last year when Hurricanes Irma and Maria and an embedded tornado first lifted it off its hillside foundation then sheared off one side. Fortunately, they were not on the island at the time, relegated to watching the nightmare on TV. Destruction was total, to the home, but not to their spirits. They continue to travel and experience world culture frequently. They have not yet decided if rebuilding is in their future.

The biggest life challenge John has faced was when he was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon and liver cancer about 12 years ago. His Cleveland Clinic oncologist told John that he, the doc, had never had a patient survive 2 years with John’s condition. Cancer-free for many years now, John disregarded some traditional treatments and used prayer, his understanding of mind/body/spirit connections, food and environmental changes and some non-traditional techniques to put all that behind him. John says he feels “truly blessed – I think God takes good care of fools and idiots.” Those of us who know him well love that self-deprecating wit, his positive attitude, his vision, brilliant mind, deep faith and his passion for enhancing all things Dublin and Muirfield.

Although he proudly boasts of the many things that set Dublin apart from other cities, about things that make Muirfield Village unique among subdivisions, and his role in creating that, John is most proud of his wife, kids and now grandkids. “They are the Number One source of my life’s good feelings,” he says.


Published September 25, 2018

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