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CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - The Charleston community will say farewell to its police chief at a Celebration of Life service Tuesday in Mount Pleasant.
Police Chief Luther Reynolds died on May 22 from cancer at age 56.
Reynolds served as the city’s police chief for five years.
Messages of support for the police department and Reynolds family have been pouring in from across the Lowcountry over the last week and the love and respect for the chief made abundantly clear.
“Chief Reynolds was one of the most courageous persons I ever knew,” Charleston County Sheriff Kristin Graziano says. “He was a very positive person, he was an extraordinary leader and incredible mentor.”
Graziano says the chief was always incredibly involved with the community. A man who could work well with any agency, any person and would get the job done well. Reynolds was named chief of police back in 2018 and announced in late 2021 that he had been diagnosed with cancer.
After an aggressive treatment that included surgery to amputate one of his legs and chemotherapy, he returned to the job in February 2022.
Reynolds died at an area hospice facility with his wife, Caroline, and his two children, Luke and Grace, by his side on May 22nd.
Hundreds of people including city officials, police officers, friends and colleagues gathered inside the McAlister-Smith funeral home on Sunday to pay respect to the life of Reynolds.
People Sheriff Graziano says he deeply cared for.
“Always putting others needs in front of his own, despite his health challenges even until the last day,” Graziano says. “He was always concerned about everyone else and what this experience I’m going through. How can I help others? And that’s who he was, a true servant leader.”
Reynolds’s celebration of life is set for 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. at Seacoast Church in Mt. Pleasant with a procession from the funeral home beginning at 10 a.m.
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