AUBURN – Entrepreneur, inventor, artist, avid-golfer, devoted family man. This was Frank Norman Reynolds Sr., affectionately known as “Pop”. A long-time resident of Auburn, Frank passed away on Jan. 19, 2021, just three months shy of his 100th birthday. In all those trips around the sun, he lived life to the fullest, embracing the sweeping changes and opportunities of the last century.

When Frank was born, indoor plumbing, telephones, and electricity were just beginning to reach the masses. He would have considered these luxuries as family circumstances led him and his five siblings to spend their early years in a children’s home in Bath. Those years, tough as they were, forged within him an indomitable character and a devotion to family that would become the through-lines of his life.

At the age of 16, Frank set off for Auburn, on foot, to join his mother. He worked in the mills while he finished high school at Edward Little. At the age of 20, he enlisted in the Navy to fight in WWII, joining the ranks of brave young men of his generation who were fighting for freedom. He served with distinction in the Pacific Theater, sending his wages home to his mother. Despite their early years of separation, they remained close throughout her life.

In 1946, Frank married Mary Elizabeth Barry- charming, beautiful and his match in nerve and wit. Together they created a happy home to raise their five children. With a growing family to support, Frank launched his first business, Reynolds Tree Service Company, alongside two of his brothers. He went on to build a second business, Reynolds Spraying Specialists, bringing his green thumb to work beautifying the neighborhoods around the Twin Cities. Always brimming with ideas, he embarked on a third venture, Poultry Trans Am. This ambitious endeavor, using a new technology he invented to transport chickens in a more humane and compassionate manner, took him to New York, California and as far as Israel.

Throughout his long life, Frank was a man of daring, earning his pilot’s license in the early days of aviation. He was a man of service, cherishing the honor of being a Past Master of the Ancient Brothers Masonic Lodge in Auburn. He was a man of innovation, becoming an early adopter at every stage of the technological revolution, from the first home computers in the 70s, to the Internet age, to learning the newest iPhone last fall. Frank was also a man of sports, with a lifelong devotion to what he considered the greatest pastime of all — golf. He dedicated most of his retirement days to perfecting his game.

At the age of 77, Frank set his clubs largely aside to care for his beloved wife, Mary, spending time with her every day in her nursing home. An entertainer at heart, he would often play his harmonica for her, to the delight of the other residents. After she passed in 1999, Frank picked golf back up and embarked on his twilight career as a golf instructor at Roy’s, where he taught until the age of 91.

In recent years, Frank returned to the arts he enjoyed as a boy: portraits, pencil sketches and watercolors. He would also pore over a good puzzle and enjoyed sharing the days sorting the pieces with his youngest daughter, Holly.

A doting husband and father, Frank was adored by his family. The son of Hazel (Mottram) Reynolds and Robert Osborne Reynolds, Frank was born on April 14, 1921 in Lewiston.

He is survived by his daughters, Debra Reynolds and Holly Brooker of Auburn, Linda Cook of Durham, daughter-in-law, Diane Reynolds of Lewiston, son, Frank Reynolds Jr. of Springfield, Fla.; his eight grandchildren; and 16 great-grandchildren.

In his passing, he rejoins a cherished daughter, Norma Prue; his beloved wife, Mary Reynolds; and his siblings, Robert Reynolds, Merton Reynolds, Elton Reynolds, Mary Bruno and Shirley Guille.

A celebration of life will be held in the spring on what would have been Frank’s 100th birthday.

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