Ralph C. Smedley

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Contents 1 Youth 2 The Beginnings of Toastmasters 3 The Apex 4 Birth of Manuals 5 His Legacy to Us

[edit] Youth

Born on February 22, 1878, Ralph Smedley jumped through many hoops to make Toastmasters what it is over 125 years later. His birthplace of Waverly, Illinois, is a city located twenty miles southwest of Springfield. Not much is recorded about his childhood, but he remained in Illinois most of his youth. Upon finishing high school, he taught schools in the countryside before enrolling at Illinois Wesleyan University at Bloomington, Illinois. After he graduated in 1903, he landed his first full time job after college at the YMCA.

Little did he know that it was through this amazing career that he would give birth to a knowledge providing masterpiece known as Toastmasters. As Educational Director of the "Y" he discovered there was a need for training in speech. As he began to design the club, he struggled for a name. The General Secretary of the "Y", George Sutton, suggested calling it a Toastmasters club. The boys liked the name and the club was a success.

[edit] The Beginnings of Toastmasters

So how did the prototype club work? There was a rotation of duties with members taking turns at presiding and speaking. Short speeches were evaluated by Ralph and the other older men, and the boys were invited to join in the evaluation to learn more. The club performed its intended purpose as leadership and speech improved in the other educational groups with which these young men were associated.

With World War I on the brink of submerging, adult education started at this "Y" in the fall of 1906, and it included night school work in various practical lines. They followed the principles of learning by doing and improving through evaluation. The group was blessed with the leaders of the city and business and professional men. The club was strong and popular, but it only lasted a year after Ralph Smedley moved to the YMCA at Rock Island, Illinois, as General Secretary in 1910. He quickly organized a Toastmasters Club at the Rock Island "Y" which soon reached a membership of 75. When Ralph Smedley left the Rock Island "Y", the Toastmasters Club there also soon perished.

After he spent over two years with an architect working on YMCA architecture he accepted the post of YMCA Secretary at San Jose, California, in September 1919, and soon had a Toastmasters Club flourishing at his new YMCA. Again the club lasted only a short time after he moved to Santa Ana, California, in 1922.

[edit] The Apex

A club was immediately organized and still exists as Club No. 1 of Toastmasters International. He introduced the Toastmasters Club idea and the first meeting was held at the YMCA Building on October 22, 1924. We measure Toastmasters history from that date. Until then, the Toastmasters Club was an educational arm of the YMCA but this was to change. In the autumn of 1925, J. Clark Chamberlain of Anaheim, California, visited the Toastmasters Club and the following winter, Ralph Smedley helped a group in Anaheim to form a Toastmasters Club. It is still labeled as Club Number 2 in Toastmasters International. The Toastmasters Club idea spread to Los Angeles, Long Beach, and other southern California cities. Representatives of these clubs met and organized an association.

[edit] Birth of Manuals

In order to save the time consumed in replying to many letters and inquiries, Ralph prepared a "Manual of Instructions" and "Ten Lessons In Public Speaking" which he mimeographed and bound in paper covers. On October 25, 1928, Ralph obtained copyrights on his publications and copyrighted the name Toastmasters Club all of which he later assigned to Toastmasters International.

The new association needed a name and because of one club in British Columbia, Canada, they chose to call it Toastmasters International. There were about 30 clubs when the association was formed in 1930, and in 1932 Toastmasters International was incorporated as a California Non-profit corporation. The Toastmasters Club was the brain child of Dr. Ralph C. Smedley and we honor him as our Founder.

In addition to his time consuming job as Secretary of the YMCA, Ralph was the Secretary and Bulletin Editor of the Santa Ana Rotary Club and now undertook the dual role of Editor and Secretary of the new Toastmasters International. In 1936, Ralph published his first article to give special recognition to General Henry Martyn Robert, the author of Robert's Rules of Order. His interest in General Robert continued for the rest of Ralph's life and culminated in the book The Great Peacemaker by Dr. Ralph C. Smedley published in 1955. Among Toastmasters he will always be remembered for "Basic Training".

At Toastmasters International Convention at Atlanta, Georgia, August 18-20, 1960, Dr. Ralph C. Smedley shows the model of the new Toastmasters International Headquarters, 2200 North Grand, Santa Ana, California, (which was so occupied until June 1990) to the District 19 delegation.

Dr. Smedley recalls the problem and the solution in "The Story of Toastmasters" (1959) page 39, "It came as a result of many demands for some kind of guide for the new member ..... I was then, as always, opposed to the use of any 'course' in public speaking for our clubs, but under pressure I bowed to the inevitable...This publication met with good reception... It has been used by a number colleges and universities as a textbook for beginners in speech... The sales of the book outside our organization have contributed a considerable amount to our income."

Later in 1950, Dr. Smedley yielded to the pressure and wrote "Beyond Basic Training", which two works served after Dr. Smedley's death. As Toastmasters grew his work load became heavier and at an age when most men consider retirement he resigned as YMCA Secretary in 1941 to devote more time to Toastmasters International. Through the war years he operated out of a small office and kept the organization together for its destiny. When the war was over it was time to turn the reigns over to a new Secretary, Ted Blanding, but Ralph was to remain active as Educational Director for the rest of his life and a permanent member of the Board of Directors. Ralph Smedley's contributions to society have not gone unnoticed. In 1950, Illinois Wesleyan University recognized his service to mankind by conferring the degree of L.H.D. -- Litter arum Humaniorum or Doctor of Humane Letters. He would be Dr. Ralph C. Smedley to the hundreds of thousands of men who benefited from Toastmaster training in all those years. Santa Ana named a junior high school after him in 1955.

[edit] His Legacy to Us

In the summer of 1964, Ralph's health began to decline and by the next summer he was confined to a medical facility, and he died on September 11, 1965. Although Ralph has passed on, his legacy will never die. Today, more than 200,000 members take part in over 10,300 clubs in the United States, Canada, and many other countries. Thousands of corporations and government agencies sponsor in-house Toastmasters clubs as communication training for their employees. Specialized clubs meet at military bases, colleges and universities, churches, and prisons. There are Toastmasters clubs for senior citizens, professional groups, bilingual groups, singles, and visually impaired.

In 1956, Toastmasters itself honored him with the title of honorary president and lifetime board member. The Santa Ana Toastmasters Club even renamed itself the Smedley Number One Club in honor of its founder.

A photograph of Ralph Smedley and the original club charter are placed in an empty chair near the lectern to represent his continuing inspiration. This started at Club Number One, but several other clubs around the world also chose to honor Dr. Smedley in this way.