William Neal Reynolds

Background

William Neal Reynolds was born on March 22, 1863 in Patrick County, Virginia, the son of Hardin William Reynolds, a prosperous tobacco merchant, and Nancy Jane Cox Reynolds.

Education

After attending local public schools, he enrolled in 1882 at King College in Bristol, Tennessee. A few months later, following his father's death, Reynolds transferred to Trinity College in Durham, North Carolina.

Career

After two years he left Trinity to work full-time for his brother, Richard Joshua Reynolds, owner of a fledgling tobacco-manufacturing enterprise in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; he had worked for the business on a part-time basis since 1881.

Starting as a leaf hanger, Reynolds soon acquired an intimate knowledge of the business and by 1886 had been placed in charge of the leaf-purchasing department. In 1888 he and the company's bookkeeper, Henry Roan, entered into a partnership with Richard Reynolds, who became president and retained three-fourths ownership of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.

The next year William Reynolds assumed the vice-presidency and became a member of the board of directors.

In 1907 Reynolds Tobacco challenged James B. Duke's American Tobacco Company trust by introducing Prince Albert smoking tobacco, a blend of flue-cured and burley leaves. William Reynolds was responsible for judging and procuring the burley, in addition to his administrative duties. A few years later he persuaded his skeptical brother to embark upon the manufacture of cigarettes.

In 1913 the company began producing Camel, the first modern mass-marketed cigarette, which, as a result of heavy national advertising and rapid public acceptance, yielded phenomenal profits. When Richard Reynolds died in 1918, just after completion of a managerial reorganization and plant modernization program, William Reynolds became president, serving until 1924, when for health reasons he asked to be relieved of some of his duties. He did, however, assume the newly created position of chairman of the board, which he held until 1931.

He then was appointed chairman of the executive committee, which was established to develop policy, and served in that capacity until his retirement in 1942. Even after retiring, Reynolds occasionally attended tobacco auctions, displaying his ability to judge fine-quality leaf.

In 1944, after several years of litigation, Reynolds and other executives, as well as the "Big Three" tobacco corporations - Reynolds, American, and Liggett and Myers - were fined a total of $255, 000 for violating federal antitrust laws through unfair price-fixing in leaf purchases. Reynolds acquired a national reputation as a trainer and breeder of harness horses. His filly My Shady Bell won fifteen of seventeen races during the 1909-1910 racing season.

In 1922, while recovering from an operation, Reynolds began to train many of his horses personally. His financial support of Grand Circuit racing in the 1920's was crucial to the survival of the sport, and in 1926 he became the first president of the Union Trotting Association, which eliminated unnecessary scheduling conflicts. Later in the decade he began to spend more time on horse breeding, developing fine stables at his lavish Winston-Salem estate, Tanglewood, and at the newly purchased Arrowpoint breeding farm near Lexington, Kentucky.

In 1927 he acquired part interest in Seminole Park, outside Orlando, Florida, and made it into a popular site for winter training. Reynolds also led a group of racing enthusiasts who established the Hambletonian Stakes, the country's most prestigious harness race.

His greatest racing triumph occurred in 1933, when his filly Mary Reynolds won the Hambletonian. As an expression of recognition for his liberal patronage of the sport, Reynolds was posthumously inducted into the Trotting Hall of Fame in 1958. Like several other early southern tobacco magnates, Reynolds engaged in numerous philanthropic endeavors.

Reynolds died in Winston-Salem.

He bequeathed $1 million directly to Wake Forest College and stipulated that Tanglewood was to be developed as "a public park, playground, and amusement center for the white race. " The remainder of his estate went to the Reynolds Foundation to be distributed to charitable causes within North Carolina.

Achievements

• Reynolds made several sizable contributions to Duke and served on its board of trustees in the 1930's. He was even more generous to North Carolina State College, donating $100, 000 for a new library and $340, 000 for a fund to supplement faculty salaries. In 1946, as a tribute to his recently deceased wife, Reynolds financed construction of the Kate Bitting Memorial Hospital for Negroes, in Winston-Salem. In 1936 Reynolds helped to create the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation to honor the youngest son of R. J. Reynolds. The foundation was his most noteworthy charitable endeavor, and one of its initial projects was to aid the building of an airport for Winston-Salem. In 1947 the foundation funded the relocation of Wake Forest College, which was moved in 1956 to the estate of R. J. Reynolds in Winston-Salem.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A Brief history of William Miller the great pioneer in adventual faith

    (A Brief history of William Miller the great pioneer in ad...)

  • Miller's Reply To Stuart's Hints On The Interpretation Of Prophecy, And A Review Of A Discourse By L. F. Dimmick (1842)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • The Transfigured Valley (1891)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • Hymns And Other Pieces Of Poetry On Various Subjects (1790)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

Views

His will reflected a strong sense of paternalism as well as a belief in racial separation.

Connections

He had married on March 6, 1889 to Kate Bitting Reynolds. He was childless.

Father:

Hardin William Reynolds

Tobacco merchant

Mother:

Nancy Jane Cox Reynolds

Spouse:

Kate Bitting Reynolds