Page 30 - 2018 August Voices
P. 30
HIDDEN TREASURE
Ralph Reynolds
Charter Member Club #31
Harvey Schowe, DTM - District Historian
Ralph Reynolds, a charter member of Portland Denver, Colorado.
Toastmasters Club #31, was born on March 14, In 1927, he moved to Portland, Oregon where
1886, in La Grande, Oregon. He attended grade he became a supervisor for Aetna Life Insurance
school in La Grande and high school in Baker Company. He worked there until his retirement.
Reynolds never lost interest in farming.
City, Oregon from 1901 to 1905. He attended
During the Depression, he was a surveyor for
Oregon Agricultural College (OAC). He was
farm mortgages in La Grande and other Oregon
a member of The Amicita Society, a literary
counties. This survey work was connected with
society founded in 1895 where he was involved
the Oregon State University (OSU) agricultural
in oratorical contests and debates. economics department. He managed a WPA
Reynolds served on the OAC yearbook project to restore depleted farmland in Jefferson
committee for 1907 and 1908. He was a captain of County, Oregon. In 1937, he was the State
Company D of the cadet reserves First Battalion Secretary and Organizing Director of the Farm
unit at OAC. Bureau.
In 1910, he became a farmer in La Grande, During 1934, Reynolds joined Portland
Oregon and married Vista Kerr an OAC student. Toastmasters as a charter member. His
After graduating with a degree in agriculture, participation in Toastmasters after 1936 remains
he continued his studies with a masters’ degree unknown.
in Agriculture from the University of Wisconsin. He returned to life insurance underwriting
He moved to Corvallis, Oregon where he worked in 1940. In 1941, he was Oregon State College
for the OAC extension service as an assistant Alumni Association vice president and was
professor in animal husbandry in 1916. elected president in June 1942. He joined
He and his family moved to Cheyenne, the Portland Underwriters club and became
Wyoming for a county agricultural agent position president.
in 1917. He then worked for the USDA Bureau On November 21, 1 967, he died in Portland,
of Markets Livestock and Meats starting as an Oregon and was buried at Riverview Cemetery.
assistant in marketing. At the time of his death, he was a member of the
In 1921, he took a salesman’s job with Hinman Men’s Garden Club.
Silo. In 1924, Reynolds became an insurance
agent for New York Life Insurance Company in
VOICES! | AUGUST 2018 31
