In Memorium: Donald R. Reynolds (1929-2016)

Donald Russell Reynolds, 87, died Friday, May 27, in hospice care in his Taghkanic home. Born April 29, 1929 in Hartford, CT, he was the son of Charles and Sadie (Brinston) Reynolds.

Donald was a graduate of Trinity College. He served in the U.S. Army for two years, posted to Germany and reaching the rank of master sergeant. He began his professional career in New York City, as a junior buyer for Macy’s and later in book sales for John Wiley & Sons, Inc. In the 1980s he moved into the travel field, as a consultant to American Express and on staff at the Institute of Certified Travel Agents.

In 1989 he was appointed executive director of the American Soviet Tourism Society (ASTS), founded that year by a number of U.S. companies active in tourism to the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union dissolved in December 1991, ASTS recast itself as the American Tourism Society (ATS). Under Donald’s staff leadership, ATS continued to facilitate travel to Russia and the newly independent republics of the USSR, and later expanded its outreach to the Middle East.

In 1992 he founded Reynolds Associates, which created a number of travel industry advisory boards for numerous companies, among them American Express, Avis, Amtrak, and Radisson Hotels; the national tourist offices of Austria, Germany, and China; Tour and Travel News and Travel + Leisure magazine. He was also a longtime member of Skal International, a professional honor society of tourism leaders from around the world, and served as vice president of advertising and public relations for ASTA.