Jere Ellis Meacham, a native and longtime resident of Chattanooga, died Monday, Sept. 29, 2008, in Long Beach, California. The cause was complications from cancer, the family said.
Born in Chattanooga on July 24, 1946, Mr. Meacham was the son of the late City Judge Ellis K. Meacham and Jean Austin Meacham, assistant dean at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He was educated at Missionary Ridge Elementary School, the McCallie School and graduated from UTC, where he edited the University Echo, the student newspaper.
Meacham served in the U.S. Army's Fourth Infantry Division in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969, seeing action in Pleiku. Decorated for valor and honorably discharged, he returned home and served as a construction and labor-relations executive with Brock and Blevins Co. and several other national and international firms.
From 1986 until his death he was labor-relations director and assistant manager of the Southern California Contractors' Association; he was widely noted as one of the most experienced negotiators in California.
He is survived by his wife, Pamela Meacham; a son, Jon Meacham, who is editor of Newsweek magazine; three grandchildren, Samuel Ellis Meacham, Mary Austin Meacham and Margaret Randolph Meacham; and a brother, G.B. Kirby Meacham. Meacham's first marriage ended in divorce.
Funeral services will be held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church on Monday, at 10:30 a.m., with the Rev. and Hon. Samuel Payne and the Rev. Dr. H. Hunter Huckabay officiating. Burial will follow in Forest Hills Cemetery.
A reception will be held at the Mountain City Club after the interment.
The family asks that memorial contributions be made to the Ellis Kirby Meacham Memorial Scholarship Fund at the University of the South.
Funeral arrangements are being made by Wann Funeral Home.