Road sign honoring late Rep. Mike Reese unveiled

Motorists traveling along a section of Route 981 in Mt. Pleasant Township will be reminded they are traveling on a highway named for a beloved state legislator who died in January.

Family members of the late Rep. Mike Reese joined state, county and local officials and scores of friends Wednesday for the unveiling the road sign that will designate a segment of Route 981 as the “Honorable Mike Reese Memorial Highway.” That part of Route 981 stretches from Route 819 to the Kecksburg Road intersection in Norvelt.

Reese’s widow, Angela, and children, Addison, 15, Michael, 13, and Claire, 11, unveiled the sign in front of more than 200 people who packed Roosevelt Hall in Norvelt. Two signs are to be placed along the road in the Norvelt area.

“These events really mean a lot. You get to have time to talk and reminisce and remember, and it means a lot,” Angela Reese said following the ceremony. She was touched by the fact that several of her husband’s fellow legislators spoke about her husband.

Reese, 42, died of a brain aneurysm Jan. 2 at Excela Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg. He had contracted covid in December and was quarantined for several weeks, but had been on the mend prior to his death.

He was a Mt. Pleasant Township native and graduate of Mt. Pleasant Area High School.

Resse represented the House’s 59th District, which includes portions of Westmoreland and Somerset counties, from 2009 until his death.

The audience at the 35-minute ceremony leading up to the unveiling of green road sign was reminded by his Harrisburg colleagues that Reese was a man of great generosity of spirit and love of family and community. He could be competitive and wasn’t a bit shy of bragging about his athletic prowess.

“Mike was larger than life and was loved by his family, colleagues and community,” said State Rep. Ryan Varner, R-Fayette/Westmoreland, who sponsored the legislation to rename a section of the road in honor of Reese.

State Rep. George Dunbar, R-Penn Township, quipped that Reese’s first year in office produced only one bill that passed — that of renaming a small bridge — and probably would not have wanted a road or bridge renamed after him.

Rather than piling up small victories with the passage of bills, “Mike was always trying to hit home runs,” Dunbar said.

To Speaker of the House Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, his fellow Republican was the kind of person who “made you feel like you were not only his friend, but his best friend.”

Former House Speaker Mike Turzai told how he had to convince Reese to run for state office, after Reese turned him down at first because he didn’t want to be away from his wife and children.

“Mike was a champion for this community and this region,” Turzai said.

Shortly after his death, Nick Molitor of Mt. Pleasant Township initiated a petition that garnered 2,500 signatures to rename part of Route 981 after Reese.

“I’m really grateful that this is definitely happening,” Molitor said after speaking with Angela Reese.

The bill to honor Reese by naming a section of the road in his memory was signed into law in June.

“To have them honor him in this way and talk about him … it means so much to all of us,” Angela Reese said.