Gary Reuter was born in 1939 to Walter and Henrietta Reuter in the St. Louis suburb of Rock Hill.  After graduating from Webster Groves High School in 1957, he enlisted in the Air Force, where he served as the weather station technician at Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth, NH.

After leaving the Air Force in 1963, Gary began a 30-year career working on fire control systems for submarine based missiles and torpedoes.  His  new job brought him to Mystic, CT, where he met Priscilla Barstow.  They married in 1970, and after several submarine-related field assignments, moved together back to Portsmouth.  They opened a Christmas Shop, The Red Sled, that they ran until 1989.  Their son, Eric, arrived in 1976.  The growing family moved to Kittery in 1978 and daughter, Amy, was born in 1979.  After his retirement in 1994, Gary pursued several entrepreneurial ventures, including gold plating and surplus electronic sales.

Gary had a lifelong passion for adventure and the outdoors.  In retirement, he became an avid hiker, which progressed into competitive mountain trail running.  He also loved ham radio, having been licensed in 1954, and driving his vintage Volvos.

In his final years, his greatest passion was family, spending much of his free time with his granddaughters, Rosa and Iola.