R.J. Reynolds’ Grandson is an Anti-Smoking Activist

by Dan

Patrick Reynolds, the grandson of tobacco magnate R.J. Reynolds, learned at an early age the damage smoking can do. “My only memories of my father, R.J. Reynolds Jr., are of a man lying down, dying of smoking,” he said. “He died of emphysema when I was 15, and I remember him coughing and gasping for breath and looking more and more sick and frail every time I saw him.”

He asked his dad if he thought his illness might be related to the cigarettes he smoked. “He had a cigarette in his hand, and said: ‘Oh, no, I don’t think so.’ He was in denial about the fact that smoking was killing him.” But Patrick had no doubt. “Cigarettes took my father away from me,” he said, as they did his oldest brother, R.J. Reynolds III, and other members of his family.

Patrick sold his tobacco stock in 1979. In 1986, he began to campaign for smoke-free laws, higher cigarette taxes, limitations on tobacco advertising and marketing, and regulation of tobacco by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

In 1989, he founded the Foundation for a Smokefree America, a nonprofit group with a mission to motivate youths to stay tobacco free and empower smokers to quit successfully.

He has spoken before Congress, to state legislatures, to major corporations and in a variety of educational settings, while being featured in publications that include Time and Newsweek and on programs that include “Oprah,” “Good Morning America,” the “Today” show, and “Larry King Live.”

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