J. Sargeant Reynolds

"Sarge Reynolds, a documentary" paid for by the Richard S. Reynolds Foundation (his grandfather) in cooperation with the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, 2006.

The book, "Sarge Reynolds – In the Time of His Life" by Andy McCutcheon and Michael P. Gleason, published in 1996. Both men worked for and knew Sargeant Reynolds personally.

Shortly after taking office, Reynolds was diagnosed as having an inoperable brain tumor. Weakened by attempted treatments of the tumor in New York City, Reynolds died of pneumonia. Reynolds asked to be buried at his great-grandfather's boyhood home. Dying in office, he was accorded a state funeral before being buried in accordance with that wish. J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College, which serves Henrico County and metropolitan Richmond, was named in his honor after his death in 1971.

Virginia's Democratic Party nominated Reynolds to run for Lieutenant Governor against pro-education Republican H. Dunlop Dawbarn in 1969, which proved to be a near-landslide year for Republicans. The Republicans concentrated their efforts on electing Richard Nixon President and Linwood Holton Virginia's governor (who outpolled Democrat William C. Battle), and succeeded with many other offices on the ticket. However, Reynolds broke the tide, polling 54% of the vote for lieutenant governor compared to Dawbarn's 42%, thus winning the 3-way race. In the 1969 general election, fellow Democrat L. Douglas Wilder (who would later become Virginia's first African-American governor) won election to represent Richmond in the state senate alongside Willey, thus replacing Reynolds.

Two years later, Reynolds ran for the Virginia State Senate from District 30, again representing Richmond City, Senator FitzGerald Bemiss having retired. Reynolds and incumbent fellow-Democrat Edward E. Willey thus became Richmond's two senators. In the General Assembly, Reynolds advocated establishing the Virginia Community College System. In the 1967 election at which Reynolds moved up to the state senate, among Richmond's eight delegates, half changed. Thomas P. Bryan, Ernest W. Farley Jr., William Ferguson Reid and Richmond's first woman mayor, Republican Eleanor Parker Sheppart replaced Andrews, Dervishian, Reynolds and Sutton.

Reynolds began his political career with the Young Democratic Club, as the Byrd Organization struggled with the end of Massive Resistance. Reynolds first ran for elective office in 1965 and was elected as one of eight delegates for Richmond. In that election after the reapportionment required by Davis v. Mann as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1965, incumbents George E. Allen Jr., T. Coleman Andrews Jr., Harold H. Dervishian, Junie L. Bradshaw and Edward E. Lane won re-election, and Reynolds, E. B. Pendleton Jr. and T. Dix Sutton replaced fellow Democrat Fred G. Pollard (who became Lieutenant Governor) as well as Richmond's first elected Republicans in years--Louis S. Herrink Jr. (who moved to King George) and S. Strother Smith Jr. (each of whom had been elected in 1963 and proved one-termers).

In 1958 Reynolds started his business career in the Market Research Department of the family's Reynolds Metals Company. In 1961 he became Assistant Treasurer and in 1965 he became Executive Vice-President of the Reynolds Aluminum Credit Corporation. He also taught economics at the University of Richmond to help him overcome shyness.

Sarge Reynolds was educated in Richmond, Virginia, graduating from St. Christopher's School in 1947, and from Woodberry Forest School in Orange, Virginia in 1954. He then went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to attend the Wharton School of Finance, University of Pennsylvania. In 1958 he graduated 9th in his class of 356.

Julian Sargeant "Sarge" Reynolds (June 30, 1936 – June 13, 1971) of Richmond, Virginia was an American teacher, businessman, and Democratic politician. He served in both the House and Senate of the Virginia General Assembly and served as 30th Lieutenant Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia under Governor Linwood Holton. He died of an inoperable brain tumor at age 34, while in office as Virginia's Lieutenant Governor.