Update: A memorial for Ed Reinke has been scheduled for Friday, November 11, 2011, at 7 p.m. at Great American Ballpark's Riverfront Club in Cincinnati, OH, the family has announced. "Everyone is invivted to come and celebrate Ed's life and share their memories," the family said.
EDGEWOOD, KY (October 19, 2011) – Louisville Associated Press photojournalist Edward J. "Ed" Reinke, 60, died Tuesday night in hospice care after suffering injuries in an October 2 incident at the Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, KY, that left him in a coma.
News of Reinke's death was announced this morning from New York by AP global photography director Santiago Lyon.
"It is a very sad day for journalism," Lyon wrote to AP colleagues. "He will be deeply missed by all who ever had the pleasure of meeting him. Ed was a first-rate professional. Over a career spanning nearly 40 years he had an extraordinary knack for consistently being in the right place at the right time. He was also a mentor to numerous photographers starting out, many of whom eventually went on to have long and successful careers of their own."
The photojournalist had been moved this week from St. Elizabeth Edgewood Hospital to a local hospice center. Reinke had been hospitalized since October 2 when he suffered a head injury at the Kentucky Speedway while preparing to cover the IZOD Kentucky Indy 300 race.
"As much as Ed was a wonderful photographer — the one I’ve aspired to shoot like since I was in college — he was even a better person," AP photojournalist Amy Sancetta said today. "He had a way of making everyone he touched feel better about themselves and their work. Generous, gentle, funny, enormously talented and remarkably kind, Ed was a gift to all of us who knew him."
Reinke's oldest son Wilson, a doctor in his final year of medical training in Louisville, posted on Facebook this morning, "Dad passed away about midnight last night, snoring like a champ and completely at peace." Reinke's wife, Tori Reinke, was with him, Wilson said, as well as the photojournalist's youngest son, Graham.
Initial reports circulated saying that Reinke fell 10 to 12 feet from a ladder or photographers' platform and struck his head. But according to his friends, the more they've learned about the circumstances the less likely it appears that he fell from any substantial height. No eye witnesses actually saw Reinke hit the ground, one of his long-time friends told News Photographer magazine, and he had only one small external injury, a forehead cut which quickly healed.
Reinke was also still wearing his undamaged photography gear when he was discovered, which showed no signs of impact from a fall of remarkable distance. And lacking witnesses, no one knows what really happened – whether he tripped, or had a medical episode that caused him to fall, or some other accident happened that left him incapacitated and on the ground.
While hospitalized Reinke experienced several medical set-backs, including internal bleeding in the brain and at least two instances where doctors revived his heart and breathing, according to eMail updates provided by his family to a circle of friends and coworkers. He was on a ventilator to help with his breathing during recovery, friends said, but he had since been removed from the device and was resting and breathing well on his own.
Well known across the country, Reinke's friends had started a Facebook page so they can stay abreast of his condition. It is online at www.facebook.com/groups/toedreinke/.
After college at Indiana University in Bloomington, Reinke was a staff photographer at The Cincinnati Enquirer beginning in 1972 before joining AP in Cincinnati in 1979. He then transferred to the AP bureau in Washington, DC, for a while before returning to the Enquirer in 1983. When AP opened a bureau in Louisville in 1987, Reinke rejoined the AP in the new post.
AP reports that during his more than 25 years with the news organization, Reinke covered Super Bowls, World Series championships, Final Fours, Summer and Winter Olympics, Masters and PGA championships, the Indy 500, President Bill Clinton's first inauguration and Hurricane Andrew. And, starting in 1988, every Kentucky Derby.
Reinke is also survived by his mother, Margaret L. Harmon Reinke.
"We don't have specifics on a memorial service yet," Wilson Reinke wrote on Facebook, "but donations can be made to either the Indiana University School of Journalism or to the St. Elizabeth Hospice Service" in Edgewood, KY.
"Mom, Graham and I would just like to let you all know that from the bottom of our hearts we sincerely appreciate all the love you've shown us. The stories and pictures about my father will forever be cherished and adored," Reinke said.
In Memory Of Our AP Friend And Colleague, Photojournalist Ed Reinke
John Flavell's column: "A Great One Passes"
