By Chris Mayhew
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Ms. Reis

HYDE PARK - Friends say Jean Scherer Reis had an intense love of the arts and helped put tickets to the symphony or the ballet in children's hands.

Ms. Reis, a former trustee and vice president of the Corbett Foundation, died Thursday at Dupree Community in Hyde Park. A longtime resident of Hyde Park, she was 79.

"She had a passion for the arts and bringing kids to the arts," said Karen McKim, executive director of the Corbett Foundation since 1989.

Ms. Reis' focus while with the foundation was on arts education, by letting kids come in contact with the orchestra and the ballet, McKim said.

"She used her muscle as a trustee of the Corbett foundation to establish AAAE (Association for the Advancement of Arts Education), which brought arts into the classroom," McKim said.

Ms. Reis started with the Corbett Foundation as a part-time secretary to J. Ralph Corbett in 1974. She soon became the full-time secretary for the foundation.

In 1982, Ms. Reis became a trustee and vice president for the foundation. She retired in 1989.

"She was not at all a calm person. She felt very intensely when she believed in something and would fight to the end to get her way on something," McKim said. "She was very vibrant, and had a laugh you could hear all over the room - even in a crowded theater."

Her other love was Music Hall and the Cincinnati Pops.

"She was so convinced that Erich Kunzel, and the Cincinnati Pops was one of the great treasures of Cincinnati that she talked him into some of the first Pops programs that were made for public television," McKim said.

The Corbett Foundation helped to finance some of the first Cincinnati Pops holiday concerts through Ms. Reis' guidance.

"She was a wonderful lady who helped us so much in the early stages of our TV shows, and she loved the orchestra very much," said Kunzel, the Pops conductor.

With her friend Joyce VanWye of Terrace Park, Ms. Reis co-founded the Society for the Preservation of Music Hall.

"We thought that Music Hall, which is owned by the city, needed some help because there was never enough money to fix it up," said VanWye, who was in charge of the ticket office for the Cincinnati Opera for 18 years.

"The opera, the Pops and the symphony all had help," she said. "We thought the building should have help, too."

Surviving are a son, James Jay Reis of North Carolina; two daughters, Julie Reis Sutton of Grosse Pointe, Mich., and Susan Reis Valentine of Durham, N.C.; and two grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at a later date. Ms. Reis' remains will be cremated. Swindler & Currin Funeral Home in Covington is handling arrangements.

Memorials: Society for the Preservation of Music Hall, 1241 Elm St., Cincinnati, OH 45202.

E-mail cmayhew@enquirer.com