Editor's note: Claude Reynolds was an enthusiastic member of the Society since its inception. The officers and membership extend his family sincerest sympathy.
Claude Reynolds died on August 26, 1979, after a long involvement with double-reed instruments. He was born on January 10, 1893, in Eagle Grove, Iowa. He came from a family of railroaders: his father was a conductor who was killed in a train robbery, and his two brothers also worked for the railroad, one of them later becoming the chief railroad adviser to the government of South Vietnam. Claude frequented the railroad shops as a child, and there he developed what was to become a lifelong interest in machinery.
He quit school after the eighth grade in order to work on automobiles, which were a novelty at the time. Before World War I, he worked for Curtis Aircraft Company and was sent to England to train personnel in aircraft engine maintenance. Later, during World War I, he served in the marines with the rank of sergeant.
By this time, he was already interested in music. His first instrument was a piccolo ordered from a Sears catalog. During the 1920's he learned to play the oboe, and became a member of the Indianapolis Symphony. However, music was only one of his occupations. He held other jobs, involving engineering and sales work. He learned engineering drawing by correspondence courses, and other parts of his technical background were acquired through reading and practical experience.
He married Mary Vise of Dallas in 1931 during the Great Depression. Like so many other people, he found these years economically difficult, and he was forced to support himself and his wife by manual labor and other temporary jobs. The financial hard times improved for him as they did for the rest of the country, and by 1938 he was working as a sales engineer for a company producing diesel engines for marine use. He was transferred to Seattle, Washington where his only son, Gordon, was born.
Late in 1938, he was offered a job with Cleveland Diesel Engine Division of General Motors. He served as their assistant manager for the Washington, D.C. office during World War II. Once again, he had sufficient funds and leisure to renew his musical interests. He bought an oboe and began taking lessons.
After the war, Claude was transferred to Florida as manager of a diesel engine dealership, and then to Dallas as Southwestern Sales Manager for the Cleveland Diesel Engine Division. During this period, his mechanical interests combined with his musical interests and led him to undertake some special projects. He made a set of gauges for his friend Marcel Dandois, the well-known oboist who at that time lived in Fort Worth. He also developed the Reynolds gouging machine for oboe cane, along with several other products of his machine-shop.
When Mr. Dandois died in the early 1970's, Mr. Noah Knepper, a professor at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, suggested that Claude Reynolds buy up the small stock of double-reed supplies from Mrs. Dandois and continue the business which Mr. Dandois had established. Claude had retired from General Motors in 1958, and he welcomed this opportunity to involve himself in the musical world which meant so much to him. He began to sell Loree instruments along with accessories and the products of his home machine shop, and soon the fledgling business pleasantly occupied most of his time.
In 1976, Claude Reynolds was eight-one years old, and was faced with the problem of his wife's failing health. At that time, all members of his family agreed that it would be a good idea for his son Gordon and Gordon's wife Dottie to enter the business. The son resigned from his academic position in Pennsylvania, and he and his wife moved to Dallas. Claude Reynolds continued his interest and active participation in the business, although his own declining health and that of his wife necessarily limited his involvement. Mary Vise Reynolds died on March 16, 1979, and Claude's death followed on August 26, 1979.
It is not customary in an account such as this to specify the details of the passing of a friend or loved one. However, it seems appropriate to report that Claude Reynolds continued his work to the last--even on the day before his death making drawings for a proposed bassoon profiler which he hoped to build. Apparently, a heart attack carried him off with little warning and little pain, perhaps even as he was considering some new project. Few of us are as fortunate.
To honor his memory, his business will retain its present name, Claude F. Reynolds and Son, Incorporated. Also, the business will be closed each year on his birthday, January 10th. Still, there are no adequate means of expressing our loss, and of expressing our affection for this unique man.