News

By Steven J. Smith

    HIGHLAND BEACH — A memorial service for Alyce C. Reizes was held Aug. 5 at the Delray Beach Club. She was 71 when she died on July 28.
    “It was well attended,” Thomas Reizes said of his mother’s memorial. “There were about 60 people there. We had a few readings and celebrated her life.”
    Besides Thomas Reizes, she is survived by his wife, Gwyn, and son, Henry, of Albany, N.Y.; her partner, Jerry Kozierow; her brother, Thomas Robert Callahan, and his children.
    Ms. Reizes was born in White Plains, N.Y., on Aug. 5, 1942. She grew up in Great Neck, N.Y., amidst the women’s shoe business, in which her father and grandfather were early pioneers. After attending Harcum Junior College in Bryn Mawr, Pa., and the NYU School of Retailing in the late 1950s, she embarked on a remarkable career of her own in that field.
    Ms. Reizes quickly rose through the ranks at such companies as Delman I. Miller and Bonwit Teller in New York City, overseeing total market coverage both in the U.S. and Europe for footwear and handbags, determining vendor structure for stores, negotiating deliveries and planning and scheduling advertising for individual markets — including direct mail, catalogs and newspapers.
    By the time she retired, Ms. Reizes had attained the enviable title of director of the shoe and accessory group for Van Buren/Carr, the premiere buying office for women’s specialty and specialty department stores — a noteworthy position for a woman at that time. She moved to Florida in 1997.
    “My mother had incredible energy,” Reizes said. “Always a smile. A real manager and producer, able to bring out the best in everyone around her. Her passions were her family, her friends and summers at the Hamptons. She enjoyed dancing and was an avid card player, excelling at canasta, gin and bridge. Also, she never let someone’s birthday go by uncelebrated and never would allow someone to be alone.
    “She was a positive person. Even at the end when she was very much in pain from complications due to Crohn’s disease and colitis, when asked how she was feeling, she would always say she was doing great.”
    Ms. Reizes will be laid to rest at Arlington Cemetery, Drexel Hill, Pa., with her mother and maternal grandparents. In lieu of flowers, contributions have been requested in her name to the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America, Florida Chapter, 21301 Powerline Road, Suite 301, Boca Raton 33433.