Walter Reed Longtime NAMA Public Relations Head Dies At 91

WILMETTE, IL -- Walter W. Reed, who served as public relations director of the National Automatic Merchandising Association for 31 years, died here on Jan. 13. He was 91.

Reed was born in Würzburg, Germany, in 1924, and came to the United States in 1941. Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943, he served with U.S. Army Intelligence under Gen. George Patton; Reed's fluency in German made him a valuable translator and interpreter during and after the fall of the Third Reich.

After separating from the service, Reed resumed his studies and graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He joined the NAMA executive staff in 1958, as the new full-line vending industry was taking shape.

Reed played a major role in explaining and demonstrating the need for effective public relations in establishing a positive image. He worked diligently to counter negative press coverage by reporters who had no idea who "vending operators" were. He was not amused by "humor" columnists who off-handedly spoke of kicking vending machines as a matter of course, or movie scenes in which people fired pistols at them.

Reed also spearheaded a number of NAMA initiatives to familiarize the public with the value of vending services to millions of people every day. These included an informative motion picture and the "Clean, Filled and Working" campaign (he attributed that slogan to the Courtney brothers, who ran Servomation of Muncie, IN). He developed materials providing NAMA member operators with easy-to-follow instructions for building rapport with local news media, submitting press releases and playing a visible part in civic affairs.

In 1967, Reed authored a book for the Small Business Administration, Starting and Managing a Small Automatic Vending Business. He was a vocal advocate for spotless, well-maintained trucks and attractive facilities as visible reinforcements of the industry's professionalism.

As public relations director, Reed was on the front line of the industry's defense against the Center for Science in the Public Interest's headline-hunting allegation that vending machines were forcing "junk food" on innocent consumers. After he retired from NAMA in 1989, he continued his efforts to deepen vendors' understanding of health and nutrition issues by introducing a "Heart Smart" program for vending operators.

In retirement, he also returned to a long-planned project: documenting a group of German Jewish youngsters, of whom he had been one, who were sent to Belgium for safety in the wake of the Nazi Kristallnacht assault on the Jewish community in their homeland. As Belgium was overrun in the spring of 1940, the children were sent on to France. As France fell in turn, they were moved to the grounds of a rundown chateau in a remote area near the Spanish border.

Reed, who had been born Werner Rindsberg, was fortunate in that his mother had relatives in the United States who arranged his emigration from France. He always had wished to find out what had happened to his companions, and after his retirement he did so in a book titled The Children of La Hille: Eluding Nazi Capture During World War II. Published in November, 2015, by Syracuse University Press, the book has been favorably reviewed.

Reed's wife of 47 years, Jeanne, reports that his unexpected death, from heart failure, prevented him from completing a series of talks about the work.