Media General's COO's son killed in accident

Olen Reid Ashe III is dead today. The 23-year-old son of O. Reid Ashe Jr., the executive vice president and chief operating officer of Media General in Richmond died on impact when his parachute failed to open while skydiving in Georgia this week.

According to news reports, the 23-year-old Georgia Tech student was pronounced dead at 4:30 p.m. from massive external and internal injuries at Skydive The Farm in Rockmart, Ga.

The senior Reid told Media General news services that his son became an infrequent skydiver after a friend’s death in a skydiving mishap about a year-and-a-half ago but had recently resumed jumping.

Our condolences and prayers are with the family.

For the full story CLICK HERE.

As a reader commented at the end of the story on the Register & Bee's web-site..."What does this have to do with Danville other than it is the son of the COO of Media General?" Good point. I'm posting the story here because I think it's sad for anyone to lose a child - even an evil Media General mogul. At our core we're all human and while I have no doubt Reid could care less about the rank and file of his company - moi' included, I'd like to think the tragic death of his son may have gotten his attention and showed him that not even money, status and fame shields any of us from tragedy or an accounting with God. Maybe Mr. Reid's hard heart will crack a bit now and he'll have a bit of compassion for the public...I wonder if the media was allowed out in the field to photograph the broken body....the grief-stricken friends...like Media General wants all of its reporters to do with everyone else...or because it WAS a Media General family did they stay away "out of respect" for one of their own? If it's good for the goose - then it should be good for the gander....So, hopefully Reid let and will let or encourage the reporters and photographers to have free reign. After all Mr. Reid....it DOES sell papers....