1906-1993
Reynolds was the son of Gaines W. Reynolds, a wholesale grocery salesman, and his wife, Anna Louise. He grew up in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and got his first job in the newspaper business selling papers at the local railroad station.
In high school, Reynolds decided he wanted to attend the University of Missouri’s Missouri School of Journalism, and he worked during high school and successive summers at a meat packing plant to pay for his studies. While at the University of Missouri, he was initiated into Pi Kappa Alpha. He graduated in 1927.
Reynolds’ first business venture was a photo engraving plant. He then purchased and sold the Quincy Evening News in Massachusetts, using the proceeds from that sale to buy the Okmulgee Daily Times in Oklahoma and the Southwest Times Record in Arkansas. Those two papers launched the Donrey Media Group. Operating mostly in small towns, the group grew to include more than 100 businesses, including newspapers, radio stations, television stations, cable television operations, and billboard companies. Perhaps his biggest success came with the ownership of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the largest newspaper in Nevada.
Reynolds interrupted his newspaper career to serve in the military during World War II, initially in military intelligence and, later, as the officer in charge of the Pacific and London editions of the “soldiers’ newspaper, Yank, the Army Weekly. He attained the rank of Major, received the Legion of Merit, Purple Heart and Bronze Star Medal during his military service, and returned to civilian status in 1945.
He focused his business acumen on businesses located in small but growth-oriented communities, and these communities often were the recipients of the Foundation’s earliest charitable grants.
Reynolds died on April 2, 1993, on a cruise ship, on the Mediterranean Sea, at the age of 86. A large sum of money from his business ventures went to the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. There are currently a number of buildings named for Reynolds, including:
Donald Reynolds is better known for his newspaper empire but he also created a formidable outdoor advertising company named Donrey. Donald created his American Dream with hard work and grit. Like many in OOH he understood sacrifice, long hours, and hard work. Donald kept many sharp with his competitive spirit.
Don Reynolds (1906-1993) grew up in Oklahoma City. His boyhood activities included after school and summer work at a local stockyards and street sales of Oklahoma City News. In that role he bought the papers for one-half cent and sold them for a penny. He told his biographer, Professor William Howard Taft, he was impressed by the profit he made on each sale. A high school teacher, Harry Boyd Summers, stimulated his interest in journalism on both the advertising and editorial sides of the business. That led Reynolds to the University of Missouri School of Journalism from which he graduated in 1927. Thank you to the Reynolds Journalism Institute for preserving his story:
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