Richard S. Reynolds Sr.
American businessman (1881-1955)

Richard Samuel Reynolds Sr. founded the U.S. Foil Company.
Early life
Reynolds was born on August 15, 1881, in Madison County, North Carolina. He was the nephew of leading tobacco producer R. J. Reynolds and the son of Major Abraham David Reynolds (August 13, 1847 – September 1925). He married Julia Louise Parham on December 21, 1904. Reynolds was the father of Richard S. Reynolds Jr. (1908–1980), who was the founder of Reynolds & Co., a brokerage firm that merged with Dean Witter & Co. in 1978 to form Dean Witter Reynolds.
Career
Reynolds left the University of Virginia in 1903 to join the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, working for his uncle, who had founded the company. Reynolds was in part responsible for the company's switch from the production of chewing to smoking tobacco and the launch of Camel cigarettes.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Richard S. Reynolds Sr.” is american businessman (1881-1955). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Richard, Reynolds and American, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “american businessman (1881-1955)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7328831. VIAF identifies the subject as 108022364. The Library of Congress control number is no2010035908. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1881, 1847, 1925 and 1904.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Richard S. Reynolds Sr.”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Richard S. Reynolds Sr. primary sources, Richard S. Reynolds Sr. archive and Richard research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Richard S. Reynolds Sr.”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Richard S. Reynolds Sr.” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.