SHORELINES

18 Shor e l i n e S | 2014 Vol :3 and the company, which is still based in Trussville, is now known as LaempeReich. LaempeReich is the leading core machine supplier in North America and has hundreds of foundries as customers. Reich's sons, David and Peter, now lead the company. Reich says he still goes into the office every day, where his sons "give me a task to complete" so that he can still feel involved. If he is not in the office or at home, there is a good chance Harry Reich is at the nine acres the Birmingham Sailing Club owns on Logan Martin. He still races in the different regattas and he sails for fun – which is to say he is trying to go faster. No doubt, there are times when Reich pauses to take in the beauty and splendor on Logan Martin. For all of his talk of having a need for speed, it's hard to imagine anyone would be able to ignore those times when the sun sparkles across the water or the calm when the wind decides to settle into a gentle breeze. Such times call for reflection. It's been nearly 30 years since Tom Reich died of Hodgkin's lymphoma at the age of 33. Sailing was one of the special things Harry and his wife, Marilyn, shared with their oldest son and his brothers and sisters. Ironically, the Reiches were already regulars in the annual Leukemia Cup Regatta races. When Tom was 26, he was diagnosed with lymphoma and the regatta took on a more personal meaning for the family. After seven years in remission, the blood cancer returned and took Tom away. Harry doesn't like to talk about the days when Tom was sick and avoids altogether talking about his son's last days. He will, however, recount stories about Tom out on the water. "He loved sailing and he was really good at it," Harry says. "He had a sense for when the wind was about to change and those intuitive things that good sailors seem to have." Tom, like the other Reich children, grew up in the Birmingham Sailing Club. But he soon outgrew crewing with the family and preferred his own thistle sailboat to see just how fast he could make the small boat go. He would go on to compete at the junior level and all through high school. At Tulane University, Tom was on the team that sailed on Lake Pontchartrain. He was captain of the National Above: Photo by Bernard troncale — Leukemia Cup races around the country have raised more than $50 million for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

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