During a conversation in the final days of his life, Meridian businessman and artist Alex Loeb expressed to his longtime friend and physician Dr. William Reid how he would live his life if he had the chance to do it over again.

    “He said he wouldn’t do anything differently,” said Reid, whose friendship with Loeb has spanned more than three decades.

    “In his final days, he was satisfied with what he had done. He felt comfortable with his life, and was at peace,” Reid said.

    Loeb passed Thursday. Funeral services are scheduled for Monday at 10 a.m. at Temple Beth Israel, with Robert Barham Family Funeral Home in charge of arrangements.

    Soft-spoken and small in statue, Loeb loved people. But most of all, he loved his hometown.

    “He was a gentleman; a fine man who loved Meridian,” his nephew Robert Loeb said.

    Loeb was a descendent of the family whose name is long-established in Meridian’s retail clothing history. The specialty/department store was opened in 1887 by Meridian merchant Alexander M. Loeb, and has remained in the same family for four generations. According to the store’s history, after the business was operated by Alexander’s son, A. Marshall Loeb, it was eventually passed to A. Marshall’s sons – Robert S. Sr. and Alex – after their graduation from Washington and Lee University in 1939. The brothers also acquired the Marks-Rothenberg Co. department store, and throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s maintained Loeb’s as the premier clothier in Mississippi. During the 1980s economic boom, Marks-Rothenberg was sold to Zales.

    During a 2012 interview published in The Star’s 393 Magazine, Loeb commented that he did not plan to enter the family business.

    “I was a journalism graduate, and married to a journalism graduate,” he said. “I left Meridian and when I got out of college, I published a weekly paper in Yorktown Heights, a suburb of New York City.”

    But a phone call from Mrs. James H. Skewes – matriarch of the family who owned The Star at the time – would briefly bring him back home to Meridian.

    “I had worked at The Meridian Star in the summer when I was college and Mrs. Skewes called my mother and told her, ‘If Alex wants to come back here, we’ve got a job for him.'”

    Loeb returned hoping to be a reporter, but was assigned to advertising.

    “But, at noon everyday I could go out and get news stories,” he said.

    After a little more than nine months, Loeb quit and joined the Navy, serving as a staff officer from 1941-45.

     Loeb was headed back North to find work at a newspaper, however, at the request of his family returned to Meridian. He handled advertising for the family clothing business and when the women’s department was about to fold, he took over it. When the Loeb Family acquired the Marks-Rothenberg department store, Loeb and his brother operated the store until it was sold to Zales.

    After his retirement from the clothing business, Loeb and his late wife, Jean, developed their love for art, showcasing their works at museums, art shows and competitions – locally and at other locales.

    Loeb also enjoyed playing tennis, which was a catalyst to his friendship with Reid.

    “I met him in the summer of 1980, when I moved here,” Reid said. “We played tennis together and had several other common interests, and we got to be good friends. His wife and my wife, Marion, also became friends and we all enjoyed doing things together. I think we’re better off for having known him.”

    Reid said he enjoyed many conversations with Loeb throughout their friendship.

    “He lived the kind of life any person would be proud of,” Reid said of his friend. “He had thousands of good stories about life – some about things he had experienced, and some about things that happened to other people, including famous ones. All of them included great insight at the end.”

    Loeb’s passing not only is a great loss to his family and circle of friends, Reid said, but also Meridian.

    “He liked people, was a good artist and seemed to have lots of good friends,” he said. “He treated people the way he wanted to be treated. Meridian has lost a great person.”