Sporting a striped button up and navy cardigan with neatly combed hair, 87-year-old Dick Reimer appears dapper as ever in his cozy home office in Maple Grove. A true renaissance man, Reimer has developed entire cities, played drums with the likes of the Andrew Sisters and Peggy Lee, served in the U.S. Navy, and raised a family of five. Reimer sits today tapping his toes as he watches the Classic Big Band, with whom Reimer has played drums for a number of years. A smile spreads across his face as the band strikes up a favorite Glenn Miller tune, “In the Mood.”
Reimer grew up in Minneapolis, where he realized his first love—music—at age 6. A dynamic drummer, Reimer shined in the North High School swing band. Upon graduation, he joined the Navy, where he toured from 1942 to 1946.
When Reimer returned from the war, he went directly back to his music-man ways. Among other local gigs, he drummed along on famous broadcast journalist Cedric Adams’ popular WCCO radio show Stairway to Stardom every Saturday. It wasn’t long before Reimer realized it was difficult to make a steady income with a show here and there. “In those days, a three-hour job only paid $12,” Reimer says with a chuckle. Coupling this epiphany with future aspirations of owning a house, Reimer took up a day job at Fireside Realty, moving his music gigs to the evening hours.
Reimer retired from real estate in 1965; he eventually launched Reimer Construction, which built nearly 50 homes in Brooklyn Center and New Hope. Two years before his entrepreneurial venture, he was elected to Maple Grove’s city council. (The role of chairman of the planning commission in the early 1950s was his first position of leadership with the city.) “When I ran my first planning commission meeting, I turned to the person next to me and asked, ‘What do you do? I never ran a meeting before,’” Reimer says.
In 1965, yards were littered with little yellow signs: “Elect Reimer for Mayor.” The race declared Reimer the winner by just 13 votes. As mayor, Reimer raised Rice Lake, formerly a 63-acre swamp, in an effort that took seven years (or as he humbly states, farmers drained it, dammed it and made it a lake again). “What we did is put it back to the way God made it,” Reimer says of the lake that was drained during the Great Depression as farmers looked for water sources.
The start of the Maple Grove police department, fire department and Elm Creek Park Commission can all be credited to Mayor Reimer. “I was always proud of our city. Even with all of our development, at the end of the year we always had money left over and always came out with a surplus,” Reimer says.
Reimer resigned as mayor in 1980 after serving 15 years. Since then, a lot of changes have been seen around Maple Grove. “Since I’ve been mayor, there’s been fantastic growth, especially with Arbor Lakes,” Reimer says. “There was no way I could even imagine we could have that kind of development. But it’s growing and working!”
Maple Grove, once home to sprawling farmland, is now a mecca of development and commerce. And Reimer, the town’s original leader, spends his days actively involved in the Lion’s Club (he’s a 43-year standing charter member), and he’s even donated much of his mayor memorabilia to the Maple Grove Historical Society. But with years of accomplishments, plaques and honors, Reimer says, “I’m most proud of my family. Through it all we were there for each other, and everything seemed to turn out right.”
