John D. Reese - Later Career

Later Career

Reese's viewed his involvement with baseball players as a sideline. He preferred baseball players but worked with other athletes. The primary focus of his practice was treating his one-time colleagues, the mill workers of Youngstown. Reese's unique ability to manipulate muscles and ligaments put working men and ballplayers alike back to work, giving him the reputation of "miracle" worker in some circles.

By the 1920s, Reese was a national phenomenon. As Time magazine wrote: "His deft fingers developed Reese into an outstanding and nationally famed expert at rehabilitating errant bones. Especially desired is he of athletes–precious professionals require the delicate care of specialists, hardy amateurs must please the alumni regularly–and many a sports luminary has hastened to Reese as a Good Samaritan". His eclectic group of patients included baseball luminaries such as Cy Young, Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, Walter Johnson, and John McGraw. But Reese also treated international leaders such as fellow Welshman Lloyd George.

Yet, Reese's growing celebrity never distracted him from the essentially humanitarian nature of his vocation. His compassionate and egalitarian approach to medical care was conveyed in a brief article that appeared in a local newspaper about a year before his death. The article stated: "Athletes, theatrical people, rich men, poor men, bakermen, and no, not thieves, but others, in all walks of life have made their way to the home of John D. Reese to have him lay his healing hands on their broken bodies, and restore them to health and usefulness".

A respected figure within the Welsh-American community, Reese became the recipient of the highest honor bestowed by the American Gorsedd. On June 26, 1926, he was invested with the Druidic degree in an Eisteddfod ceremony held at Youngstown's Wick Park. A local newspaper reported that the event marked "the first time this degree had been conferred in this country". The ceremony was reportedly "a survival of the days of the Druids in Wales".