PROFILE: Norma Reins, Veteran of War Effort

It only takes a second to notice once you enter the College of Business Administration (CBA) office - the voice that greets you is not that of a Cincinnati native. It's not even close.

Even after nearly 50 years in Cincinnati, Norma Winfield Reins maintains the warm but proper tone of her British accent. It's all the more effective, because Reins has a few stories of her past to share.

Reins, who just celebrated her 80th birthday in March, works five hours a day at CBA because she is sure she would miss it if she didn't. But she also knows what it is to work out of a sense of duty.

Reins can trace her career path all the way back to World War II, where she worked in London at SHAEF, the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Forces. Those were the offices of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, where the secret planning for the D-Day invasion was done.

"In the early months of 1944, the corridors of the embassy resounded with eager voices conversing in many languages as representatives from the free world gathered to plot the great strategy to defeat Hitler," Reins recalls.

"Magnificent silk-turbaned Sikhs rubbed elbows with Australians and Canadians and Africans in colored robes. Polish soldiers who had somehow escaped the murderous scythe of Nazi destruction and joined the British forces (met with) immaculately uniformed American army and navy officers and their British counterparts, resplendent in red-tabbed jackets, Sam Browne belts and swagger sticks tucked under their arms. It was an impressive panorama of allied power."

Reins was drafted into military service in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) in 1942, assisting as a staff member at an Intelligence Corps Recruiting office and then at the American Embassy, which led to her involvement with SHAEF.

The tension was enormous. Her native London was being decimated by German bombing and, with France occupied, the German army was on England's doorstep. After six years of war, she remembers wondering if there would ever be a return to normal life.

"We didn't know everything that was going on," Reins says. "I knew a little more because I was working in the headquarters, but you weren't allowed to have one word leave your lips."

SHAEF was home not only to the planning for D-Day, but also disinformation efforts to keep the Nazis off balance. It wasn't until after the invasion on June 6, 1944 that Reins and her colleagues even learned what it was their office had been planning.

D-Day, of course, became the turning point in the war in Europe. Less than a year later, on May 8, 1945, the Germans surrendered. In a pivotal development in her personal life, Norma met Cincinnati-native Bob Reins of the United States Air Force at a Sunday afternoon tea dance in June. They quickly fell in love and were married on Aug. 19.

Norma had to spend eight months waiting in England before finally crossing the Atlantic on the Queen Mary, which was still in service as a troop ship in 1946.

Today, the Reins' are still together after more than 55 years of marriage. And Norma continues to work at UC. She came here after retiring from a position with a corporate commercial real estate company in 1990. She first worked as an assistant in UC's Writing Across the Curriculum program, then came to CBA in 1998.

She enjoys the people she comes in contact with at work, particularly the students who are headed out around the world through CBA's extensive global business education programs.

"It's wonderful that these students get to travel to other countries," Reins says. "It is the best way to learn more and appreciate what we have in the United States. When you've been through a war and it's on your own soil, it does affect your perception of life. We just don't take things for granted."

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