Jim Rees passed away on April 17 after a long battle with cancer.
   Rees joined the ECU faculty in 1966. During his lengthy career at ECU, he taught courses in voice and diction, public speaking, broadcast announcing, audio production and business/professional speech. He retired as professor emeritus in the ECU School of Communication in 2003, but continued to teach part-time until 2007.
   While at ECU, Rees was a mentor to numerous students. According to  The Daily Reflector, he “loved classical music, travel, classic automobiles, and endlessly pursued the ‘absolute sound’ on stereo.”
   The family requests that memorial donations be made to the Lester and Alta Rees Memorial Scholarship for communication students at ECU.

To access the Daily Reflector's online virtual guestbook, go to
http://www.legacy.com/reflector/Obituaries.asp and type "Rees" in the search term box.

He was and will always be my favorite instructor.  I emailed him just a few years ago to let him know how much he had touched my life.  Not only did he email back, but he remembered me as the student who was the "NC Watermelon Queen".  He will be missed.—Janelle Lynn Walters

I just read that Mr. Rees died April 17.  If you have any means to do so, please pass my condolences to his family. A great friend of mine, Sheri Lynn Jernigan, and I were students of Mr. Rees' from 1989-91 and remember him vividly. Lynn and I even got him to
make an appearance as the narrator and a radio broadcaster in a radio drama we produced called "Dead Hopes."  He was so fun to work with and a great support as we pieced together this show. I remember dreading having to call him at home one time on a Saturday or Sunday because I needed to know how get multiple pieces of equipment to function simultaneously as I sought to produce a master tape. Not only did he take my call, he came to campus, showed up instantly at that studio, rewired some things, and enabled me to get every piece of equipment working just like I needed it. Lynn and I made an A+ on that show.  I'm told it was exceptionally rare for him to award a perfect grade, which made it all the more fabulous to Lynn and me. I loved his practical approach to teaching and can remember so much about the expertly and entertainingly way he ran his classes. I'm so glad he was there for so many of us as we worked toward completing our communication degree.—Mike Harrison, Counselor, Class of 2010, Western Guilford High School

I was saddened to just learn of one of my mentors passing in the C-Current. Mr.
Rees was the one professor at ECU that really took me under his wing. I was a
wild, out of control kid with a great voice and a creative mind. He saw that
while other teachers just chose to write me off. I'll never forget the time I
received a call in 1988 from Mr. Rees asking me if I wanted to accompany him to
take Douglas Edwards, the 1988 commencement speaker and CBD news legend, back
to RDU. I was honored he chose me and my good friend Lori Hobbs. I believe he
chose me because he know I loved everything about broadcasting. He knew I would
use those magical 2 hours to listen to the man that preceded Walter Cronkite.
What a great memory! Mr. Rees also helped me perfect my speaking and
broadcasting talents which are the basis of my success today. My last memory of
our relationship was rehearsing my 1989 graduation speech with him in his office. I was senior class president and he told me at the time that speech would be the most important speech of my life because it would be the set up to everything that will come in the future. I am sad that I didn't keep in touch with him so that he can see and enjoy by success along with me. He will be missed by many. — Dillon Kalkhurst


To add your comments to this tribute page, please email them to Barbara Bullington at bullingtonb@ecu.edu, along with your name. Please also specific whether you are faculty, former student, etc.