William Neal Reynolds was born on March 22, 1863, in Critz, Virginia. Reynolds was the younger brother of Richard Joshua Reynolds, proprietor of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. He served as director of the company from 1890 to 1942 and became president of the company upon his brother Richard's death in 1918, a position he held until 1924. During World War I, Gov. Thomas W. Bickett nominated him to serve on the state's western district exemption board. Reynolds declined the appointment, citing the fact that because of his brother R. J.'s hospitalization, the burden of running the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco company fell completely on him and he couldn't give the exemption board the time it needed. He died in Winston-Salem on September 10, 1951.