Foster A. Reynolds | 1936-1960

Foster Reynolds left H.N. White at the end of 1935. In February 1936, just after his 51st birthday, he founded the F.A. Reynolds Company. Free to experment with instrument design and manufacturing without the overhead and bureaucratic constraints of a larger business, Reynolds quickly moved to separate himself from his past work and establish his own place in the industry:

"With an established reputation in the industry and access to skilled technical assistance in Cleveland, Reynolds was able to experiment with design improvements in his own factory and to produce tubas, sousaphones, French horns, baritones and bass trombones that were rapidly recognized for superior workmanship and accoustical properties." [Richard Dundas, "Twentieth Century Brass Musical Instruments in the United States", p.59]

In 1939, Foster Reynolds lent his expertise designing small brass to the creation of the Martin Committee trumpet (along with Renold Schilke, Vincent Bach, Elden Benge and local musicians). The Committee model went on to dominate the jazz trumpet market from the late 1940's to the 1960s.

After working for ten years to build and secure his company's place in the brass instrument industry and having spent over 40 years in the industry overall, Foster Reynolds sold F.A. Reynolds Co. to Max Scherl and Heinrich Roth of Scherl & Roth in 1946 and retired at age 61. However, just a year later, he was in the Chicago area consulting for Maurice H. Berlin, president of Chicago Musical Instrument Company (CMI).

Founded in 1920, CMI was a long-time distributor for California-based F.E. Olds & Son. Shortly after World War II ended and brass instrument manufacturing restrictions were lifted, CMI purchased F.E. Olds & Son and took over operations with an eye on penetrating the burgeoning school band market..

One of CMI's initial operating decisions was to begin producing a full line of background and low brass instruments in addition to the trumpet, cornet and trombone models that Olds was already making and had built its reputation on. However, the Olds plant in Los Angeles was not set up for manufacturing the additional brass lines and CMI had difficulty finding a partner who would provide these instruments to Olds without also producing the more profitable small brass and trombones. Instead, Maurice Berlin coaxed Foster Reynolds out of retirement and sent him to Los Angeles with a directive to tool up the factory and begin manufacturing the full line of brasses.

Foster Reynolds made an immediate impression on the F.E. Olds Co. Among his first design actions were the renowned Ambassador model trumpet, cornet and trombone (1948). Reportedly built on the same bell mandrels as the premium Recording models and featuring extremely reliable valve sections, the Ambassador line was the latest design to reflect Reynolds' professional commitment to providing high-quality, dependable horns at an affordable price.

The "Brilliant Bell" of the 1948/49 Studio line (trumpet, cornet, trombone) points to either collaboration or competition with his former company in Cleveland, who had launched an identical nickel-silver bell flare on the Emperor ("Silver Flare") and Roth ("Tone Tempered") lines in 1947.

Reynolds worked with renowned artist Rafael Mendez in the early 1950s to introduce the signature Mendez trumpet and cornet models. Not certain whether the Olds/Mendez relationship preceeded or followed the Reynolds/Leonard Smith relationship.

As the plant supervisor at Olds in the 1950's, Foster Reynolds pioneered large-scale techniques for manufacturing brasswinds and mentored Don Agard, a former F.A. Reynolds Co. employee, and Zigmant Kanstul, who started at Olds as a French horn assembler. One of Agard's first major projects was managing the move in 1954 from Olds' long-time factory in Los Angeles to larger facilities in Fullerton. R. Dale Olson notes that:

"Ruth Dallas, [Reginald Olds'] long-time personal assistant / secretary, was very close to F.A. and Mrs. Reynolds [and] said that, upon moving to Fullerton, F.A. opened an account at Fullerton Savings and Loan (with about $20,000 in the early 1950s), and was only given a pencil embossed with the S & L name!!!!  F.A. thought he should have been accorded better treatment."

Foster Reynolds died on July 18, 1960 while at work at the Fullerton plant. According to those who were at Olds at the time, Reynolds had a heart attack after firing an employee. The attempts by Kanstul and Agard to resuscitate Reynolds were unsuccessful and he died immediately. Reynolds was survived by his second wife, Myrtle, and brother, Harper.

Harper Reynolds (1892-1975) | Foster Reynolds' younger brother, Harper, assisted Foster for 20 years at H.N. White, then was involved with the Ohio Band division of the F.A. Reynolds Co. business. Harper went with Foster to California in the late 1940's and became a shop superintendent at F.E. Olds; his name surfaces again with helping launch the Olds Ambassador instruments. Harper reportedly "retired" from Olds (not to his liking) after Foster's death in 1960.

After Reynolds' death, Agard took over plant operations while Kanstul became factory superintendent in charge of all R & D - Engineering and Design. Kanstul remained at Olds until the early 1970s when he left to become manager of the nearby Benge plant and eventually his own company, Kanstul Musical Instruments. Agard ran operations at Olds until the company finally closed its doors in 1979.

<< Foster Reynolds | 1884-1935