By N. BRADFORD
Reporter News Staff
A busy summer weekend came to a pause Saturday in the City of Pearland, where a community gathered to celebrate longtime community servant Tom Reid, who died June 24 at age 97.
“A brilliant scientist, an amazing visionary, a remarkable statesman, a charismatic leader and a humble human being is no more,” said Dr. Periyanan Vaduganathan, a longtime friend of Reid. “The loss of this leader of the century is palpable in the air of Pearland.”
One of the longest-serving mayors in Texas, Reid was named mayor emeritus after retirement in 2020. He is the namesake of the city’s central library as well as the U.S. post office on Walnut Street.
Saturday’s public memorial was held at First Church of Pearland, where speakers included former U.S. Rep. Pete Olson, who knew Reid for 16 years.
”If you spend one minute, one day, one month with Tom Reid, you were blessed,” Olson said.
“He loved Pearland so much, one of my staffers suggested we change this town’s name to Reidland.”
In addition to mayor, Reid’s many roles have included councilman, planning commissioner, chairman of the Pearland Library Board, chairman of Brazoria Drainage District and scout troop committee chairman.
“Randy and I affectionately referred to him as Mr. Pearland,” said Pearland teacher Brenda Weber, wife of U.S. Rep. Randy Weber, who served on the council with Reid. “He was Pearland’s own Energizer Bunny. Mayor Reid was the kind of person all of us aspire to be.”
Reid also was a regular representative of his community at the Houston Galveston Area Council, making regular trips with County Commissioner Stacy Adams.
“He talked about building a city,” Adams said. “A lot of these things to us in the room would be such boring topics — discussing expanding the ETJ or getting water rights for the future. But that’s what made him tick. Getting the details on those sorts of things and then telling the community we need to do that. Planning for the future.”
Born in Houston in 1925, Reid moved to Pearland in 1965 and was elected council member in 1973.
“It’s kind of interesting how you can get involved in something when you didn’t really seek it,” Reid said during a 2020 interview that was played during Saturday’s service. “But it came looking for you, and that’s what really happened in my case.”
