Adventurer Jean Reichel of Lloyd Harbor, 88

BY KIMBERLEY A. MARTIN | kimberley.martin@newsday.com

9:17 PM EDT, May 8, 2008

Undated photo of Jean Reichel

Jean Reichel never wasted a moment. Always open to adventure, the Lloyd Harbor resident seized every opportunity to see the world, meet people of different cultures and experience new things.

"The thing she always said to all of us was, 'I never regretted anything I've done. I've only regretted the things I couldn't accomplish,' " said her daughter Dena DeSena, an interior designer.

Reichel, 88, died April 22 of congestive heart failure at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown.

Relatives said Reichel instilled her sense of urgency and zest for life in her three children.

"She was always an adventurer, and she encouraged all of us to take the leap. 'Don't say you can't do something, just do it,' " said DeSena, 57, who lives in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. "That was really her essence."

She was busy traveling the world, living a life others could hardly believe.

Reichel was born April 16, 1920, in Conneaut, Ohio. As a teenager she barnstormed as a stunt pilot to earn money during the Depression. In her later years, Reichel, who never went to college, traveled to Colombia, Thailand and Cambodia with her first husband, the late John Donald Reichel, and children, and also helped to set up Pakistan's version of the Girl Scouts. The family later traveled to Lagos, Nigeria, where Reichel documented the civil wars of 1967-69 through her photography and film.

"Our home movies are of wars, coups, charging elephants and snakes," DeSena said. "If there was a waterfall to go find, or a Buddha head to go find in Cambodia, she would pull people together."

Her husband died in 1976.

In 1984, Reichel married James Hektner. He shared her love of travel, and they went to China, New Zealand and Europe. Reichel also was a passionate gardener who had a gift for artistic arrangements. She studied flower arranging in Japan and attended flower shows in Chelsea, England.

An active member of the Lloyd Harbor community, she was an honorary director of the Nathan Hale Garden Club and a member of the General Federation of Women's Clubs of Huntington Township and the Ladies Circle at Old First Presbyterian Church in Huntington.

"She was a can-do person," said her daughter Patty Wendel, 55, of Centerport, a cancer research scientist. "I try to live my life like her and try to bring my kids up the same way she brought us up."

In addition to her husband and daughters, Reichel is survived by her son, John Reichel of Del Mar, Calif.; sister, Lura Cheney of Conneaut, Ohio, and four stepdaughters and 10 grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 10:30 a.m. June 28 at Old First Presbyterian Church, family members said.