Foster Allen Reynolds (December 29, 1883 - July 18, 1960) was an American

brass instrument A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. Brass instruments are also called labrosones or labrophones, from Latin a ...

designer and manufacturer.

Career

Early years

Reynolds began as an apprentice with the Brass band instrument manufacturer J.W. York. At York he learned brass band instrument design in a tradition that traced its lineage back through James York, the company's founder to the company where he learned the craft, the

Boston Musical Instrument Company The Boston Musical Instrument Company was an American manufacturer of brass band instruments in the late 19th and early 20th centuries located in Boston, Massachusetts. History Elbridge Wright was an apprentice to Samuel Graves at his original ...

, which in turn had been formed by the union of the E.G. Wright Company (est. 1841) and Graves & Co which had been making instruments since the 1820s and the advent of valved

s. In 1904, Reynolds left the York company to take a position with the

H.N. White King Musical Instruments (originally founded as the H. N. White Company) is a former musical instrument manufacturing company located in Cleveland, Ohio, that used the trade name King for its instruments. In 1965 the company was acquired by the S ...

company, the maker of “King” instruments. There he transitioned from craftsman to shop superintendent. Reynolds worked for 30 years in Cleveland at

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

rising far in the company.

F.A. Reynolds Company

Reynolds established the F.A. Reynolds Company in 1936 to produce his own brand of band instruments. Reynolds developed a reputation for his instruments' excellent acoustics and superior craftsmanship.Dundas, Richard, 20th Century Brass Musical Instruments in the United States, p.49 Reynolds spent 10 years with his company, developing successful lines of

cornet The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B, though there is also a sopr ...

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

baritone horn The baritone horn, or sometimes just called baritone, is a low-pitched brass instrument in the saxhorn family.Robert Donington, "The Instruments of Music", (pp. 113ff ''The Family of Bugles'') 2nd ed., Methuen, London, 1962 It is a piston-val ...

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

s, and

bass trombone The bass trombone (german: Bassposaune, it, trombone basso) is the bass instrument in the trombone family of brass instruments. Modern instruments are pitched in the same B♭ as the tenor trombone but with a larger bore, bell and mouthpiece to ...

s among others. The company realized significant sales of instruments to the

United States Armed Forces The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. At the age of 61, Reynolds sold the company to Scherl & Roth in 1946. While at F.A. Reynolds, he teamed with other notable brass men of the day to work on the

Martin Committee The Martin Band Instrument Company was a musical instrument manufacturer in Elkhart, Indiana. The firm produced band instruments, including trumpets, cornets, fluegelhorns, trombones, and saxophones from 1908 through the 1960s. The brand was acqu ...

trumpet in 1939. He also Established the Ohio Band Instrument Company concurrently owned by himself, his brother Harper and Max Scherl of Scherl & Roth. This spin-off company became wholly owned by Scherl & Roth at the same time they purchased F.A. Reynolds.Ohio Band Instrument Company, copyright 2004-2010 by Contempora Corner, published at http://contemporacorner.com/history/obic/ retrieved 10/27/2010

Retirement and F.E. Olds

The year after selling his company to retire, Reynolds was lured to

F.E. Olds F. E. Olds was a manufacturer of musical instruments founded by Frank Ellsworth (F. E.) Olds in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California in the early 1900s. The company made brass instruments, especially trombones, cornets, and trumpets. By the late ...

by Maurice Berlin, the president of Olds’ parent company

Chicago Musical Instruments Chicago Musical Instruments Co. (CMI) was a musical instrument distributor, which at times had controlling interests in Gibson Guitars (1944 to 1969), Standel, Lowrey, F. E. Olds (brass instruments), William Lewis & Son Co. (stringed instrument ...

. Reynolds moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and took control of the Olds factory there. By 1948 this involvement lead to the birth of the Olds Ambassador line of

s and

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

s which Olds sold for decades. In 1953 Reynolds took on an apprentice, Zigmant Kanstul, who would serve as plant superintendent after Reynolds' death until 1970. Reynolds died on the job from a massive heart attack in the company of Kanstul and others at the Olds plant in Fullerton,

Company legacy

F.E. Olds and Son has been reconstituted and is selling Olds and Reynolds branded instruments with a headquarters in Westfield,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

.F.E. Olds, website, http://www.feolds.com/ The original F.E. Olds company closed its doors in 1979, still managed by one of the employees present with Reynolds at his death, The Ohio Band Instrument Company name went away around 1950.

Personal life

Reynolds was married twice and had three children. His marriage to Frances Dean at the age of 19 lasted 31 years before ending in divorce. His second marriage, to Myrtle Rozelle, lasted the remainder of his life. He entered the workforce at the age of 19 in 1903 and died on the job July 18, 1960, at the age of 76.Foster A. Reynolds, copyright 2004-2010 by Contempora Corner, published at retrieved 10/27/2010

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reynolds, Foster Musical instrument manufacturing companies of the United States Brass instrument manufacturing companies 1883 births 1960 deaths