Reynolds Associates is a company that began nearly fifty years ago, with the renovation of a municipal pipe organ in Marion, IN.

But the story actually begins long before that.

Thad and David Reynolds are the latest businessmen in a family whose entrepreneurial interests have centered on musical instruments for over 120 years. Thad’s great-grandfather, Thad Butler, manufactured pianos and parlor reed organs in central Indiana before the turn of the twentieth century.

In his twenties, he started Indiana’s most successful carriage factory. In his thirties, he had transitioned to the real estate business during east central Indiana’s gas boom. By the age of forty, he had become a retailer, first selling bicycles, and finally settling on musical instruments. The firm he founded, the Butler Music Company, became a business institution in central Indiana for nearly a century.

Thad Butler’s son, Edwin (Thad’s grandfather) was President of the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM), early in the twentieth century, and under him the business flourished, winning many national awards. Exposed to this family of musicians and music merchants, it was probably inevitable that Thad Butler Reynolds would be drawn to the world of music.

Young Thad’s first project – his baptism of fire – happened while he was still a student at Ball State University, when he tackled the restoration of the C.G. Barley Memorial Organ in Marion’s Memorial Coliseum. This magnificent three-manual Estey organ (#2727) had been silent for over a decade because the cost to repair it had been estimated at $75,000. It took Thad nearly a year of volunteer time to get the old instrument playing again, at a total cost of $28.

Following newspaper and television reports in the local and Indianapolis media, his new business was launched, slowly at first, but with ever-increasing momentum. By the way, the Coliseum organ continued to play for thirty years (on its original leather!), until the building was remodeled and repurposed. But the great organ is still there, waiting for Thad and David to renew it again!

By the time David Reynolds was old enough to hold a screwdriver, it was clear that he, too, would be a talented organ builder. Eventually, the father and son team became a business partnership.

Over the years, the business grew. New technologies, such as our CNC router system, greatly improve our capabilities and the quality of our work. Our facilities grew steadily from a two-car garage to a proper shop, and finally to two shop facilities totaling over 14,000 square feet. Our team also grew, with new young employees learning the trade and also learning our philosophy of customer service and quality work. Our instruments have been played by many of the world’s finest organ recitalists, but the real test of our work is the instruments in our customers’ churches that enhance worship with reverence and dignity.

Sadly, David Reynolds passed away in 2024 after a long battle with cancer. While his loss was emotionally devastating, our work has continued. We have continued to build important pipe organs.

So, what constitutes an “important pipe organ?”

Any organ, large or small, in county church or city cathedral, that brings people to worship, that expresses their joys and triumphs, that heals their sadness, that helps move them closer to eternal things – that is an important pipe organ.