John Reck was a charter member of the Juneau Men's Igloo.

Reck was born in Elkador, Claydon County, Iowa on April 12, 1865. At the age of 13 he left home to shift for himself. When he was 18 years of age, he learned the meat business and came west to Tacoma, Washington, in 1886, where he lived until 1897.

At that time he was sent to Juneau by the firm he worked for to take over a meat market owned by the company. The butcher had taken off for the Klondike. John expected to stay for only a few months. But the company never sent a replacement. “And I have been here ever since,” Reck told a reporter when the business man was interviewed on his 75th birthday in 1940.

Mr. Reck married Marie Ann Rieck in Strawberry Point, Iowa on October 3, 1888. She was born June 20, 1867 in Kitchner, Ontario. This union produced four children. Mary Ann Reck died on December 5, 1940 in Juneau, Alaska.

Mr. Reck was prominent in the life of Juneau. He had served four times as councilman on the Municipal Council of Juneau, and in 1914-1915 was mayor of the city. He was also the president of the Juneau Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Reck was head of the Alaska Meat Company in Juneau, which business he had conducted for many years. In 1912 he became interested in the First National Bank of Juneau, and was a director of that institution until 1915, when he was elected president of the bank.

Daly Alaska Empire, Apr 12; Dec 6, 1940
Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers 1850-1950, Volume 2, p 268-269, by Ferrell, Ed (May 1, 2009)