Reynolds, F. Gordon (Francis Gordon), 1902-1996

Francis Gordon Reynolds was born on September 15, 1902, in Aldrich, Montana, the son of William Pearson Reynolds and Winifred Braine. His parents came to Montana from Nova Scotia, Canada, where they both graduated from the same medical school. They moved to the mining town of Aldrich, Montana, around the turn of the century and shared a medical practice. They lived there for eight years and had two other children. After moving back to Nova Scotia for a few years, the family spent five years in Lane, South Dakota, before settling just south of Missoula, Montana, in Stevensville in 1917 and continuing their medical practice. Reynolds graduated from high school in Stevensville and attended the University of Montana in Missoula where he majored in biology from 1920 to 1924. He taught for a while, then attended dental school at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Reynolds moved back to Missoula after graduation in 1929 and lived there with his wife, Nettie. He opened a dental practice in the Wilma Building, which he kept for fifty-two years. Reynolds also involved himself in local government in the Lindbergh Lake area in the Swan Valley, northeast of Missoula. He was chairman of a committee that worked on zoning the land around the lake and was also a member of the Lindbergh Lake Property Owners Association. A bridge crossing the Swan River near Lake Lindbergh was named in his honor in 1987. Reynolds died in Missoula on October 19, 1996.