‘A grand old Vale fellow’
We pay tribute to long-serving Port Vale fan Reg Dean, who passed away at the age of 85.
Reg Dean, the club’s longest-serving supporter of some 85 years, passed away recently. This website would like to pay tribute to this grand old Vale fan who will be sadly missed.
Reg Dean started supporting Port Vale in 1920 when he was ten when it then cost just half a crown to watch the match.
Mad-keen Vale fan Reg even visited the club every week to bring the staff a bag of sweets. He used to sit in the Railway Stand for many years and would be well-known to fans who travelled on the supporters coaches to away grounds. Reg was even made the Supporters Club President in his later years.
Long-standing Vale supporter Jean Jackson told the onevalefan website some personal memories of Reg:
“One story, which I assume is not apochryphal but can’t personally vouch for, relates to his visit with a number of Vale fans to Holland for a pre-season tour in the Rudge years.
“Reg was the oldest by far of those involved and was persuaded, no doubt against his better judgement, to visit Amsterdam’s red light district (purely window shopping you understand!). Reg claimed he had never seen anything like it in his life and was totally bewildered by the whole business. Quite different from Boslem!
“Reg was known to moan now and again, but I’ve never heard him booing a Vale player in his life.”
He passed away on the 20th February, just days away from his 95th birthday. A minute’s silence before Vale’s match with Luton was held at Vale Park to remember him.
The onevalefan website would like to pass on our condolances to Reg Dean’s family.
He will be sadly missed.
Our thanks to Jean Jackson for her help with this article and to Gerard Austin Photography for the photo of Reg Dean.