Brookings, OR – After a long battle with dementia, Regene (Reggie) Ann Radniecki, age 74, passed away August 30, 2022 in a care center in Brookings, Oregon.
Reggie was born January 29, 1948 in Thief River Falls, to Elaine Ardell Bowman and Roman Arthur Radniecki. She grew up on a farm, attended elementary grades at a one-room school house (Pleasant View), went to high school in Oklee, and began college at Bemidji State College in Bemidji.
In 1972 she began working as a photographer at the Minneapolis Tribune and at the time was the first female in 25 years to be on the photo staff of the paper. While working at the newspaper she attended the University of Minnesota and earned a BA degree in journalism. She also free lanced and had photos published in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, National Geographic’s World Magazine, Life, Ebony, Business Week, Forbes and Time. She held teaching positions at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York state and the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism in Columbia, MO.
After leaving the Tribune, she was awarded a full graduate scholarship and stipend to attend Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism where she taught photojournalism and earned an MA in mass communication and began working on a doctorate.
Her last 13 years of employment were spent teaching mass communication courses at the University of Minnesota, Moorhead. During this time she was awarded the Dean’s “Certificate of Excellence” for teaching, was nominated for the “US Professors of the Year” award and received summer-time fellowships from National Geographic and the Society of Newspaper Editors Institute for Journalism Excellence.
Her work as a photojournalist provided her many opportunities for world travel which she thoroughly enjoyed. Her love of family history took her many times to Norway and Poland.
The family remembers Reggie for her humbleness, generosity to family, friends and strangers, passion for family history, love of reading and travel, adoration of her nieces and nephews and zest for living an adventurous life.
Reggie is predeceased by brother, Ross Radniecki; and father, Roman Radniecki; grandparents, Charles and Emma Bowman and John (JL) and Emma Radniecki; aunts, uncles and many cousins.
She is survived by her mother, Elaine Radniecki; brothers, Keith (Shari) and Charles (Carol); sisters, Renay (Bill), Paula, and Beth (Dick); aunts, Marlene Johnson and Therese Radniecki; and many nieces, nephews and cousins.
The family wishes to express their gratitude to the medical staff and caregivers of the Brightcreek memory care unit of Seaview Senior Living Community and Costal Home Health and Hospice, both in Brookings, OR.
Celebration of Life Service will be held at 10 a.m. on Friday, September 30, 2022 at Johnson Funeral Service in Oklee. Burial will follow at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Cemetery in Oklee.
Visitation will take place one hour prior to the service on Friday at the funeral home.
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