He's mostly known as a successful businessman who owns or has been involved in numerous business ventures in the Huntington area. But he's also a cattleman, a philanthropist and, most recently, the new head coach for the Huntington St. Joseph Central Catholic High School boys' basketball team.

"About the time you think you've figured him out, he does something that surprises you," said Reynolds' longtime friend A. Michael Perry. "I've known him for 40 years, and all I've learned in 40 years is that I'll never figure him out. He'll do things that constantly amaze me."

Like become a basketball coach.

But Perry said when he thinks about it, his friend's move to the hardwood just seems like something Reynolds would do. After all, this is the same man, Perry said, who invited him to lunch one day at an upscale Huntington restaurant. But when Perry got there, he saw Reynolds having lunch with dozens of children from Spring Hill Elementary, a Huntington-area school with a large percentage of students eligible for free and reduced-price lunch. Perry said Reynolds bought them all prime rib and taught them how to eat and behave in an upscale restaurant.

"Those are the types of stories most people don't know about him," Perry said. "Everyone thinks he's just a hard-nosed businessman, but he is also one of the kindest people I've ever met. He makes the Rubik's Cube look simple. He's an extremely complex person."

Describing Reynolds and his world as complex is an understatement of sorts. His business, Champion Industries, has more than a dozen subsidiary businesses that focus on printing, paper, office supplies and even a newspaper. Reynolds also sits on numerous corporate boards, including the boards of several banks, a railroad company and an energy equipment company.

He also has been involved in numerous economic development and civic programs in the Huntington area, including United Way of the River Cities and Boys and Girls Club of Huntington.

"I don't know of any substantial civic groups or projects he and his family have not been involved in," Perry said.

Complex but Simple

But Reynolds' world, while complex, is also kind of simple and straightforward. He doesn't have a computer on his desk, and he doesn't own a cell phone, though his son Doug Reynolds points out his father will borrow his or someone else's if necessary.

And he doesn't make appointments. If a person wants to meet with him, fine. Come over to his office, take a seat in the waiting room, and he'll see his visitors on a first-come, first-served basis.

It doesn't really matter who the person is. They could be a reporter, a salesperson or even a governor. Reynolds treats them the same.

"One of the best lessons I learned from my father was when I was a boy, I'd go with him to the plant. He'd go when the men were working, so sometimes it would be 11 at night or midnight. He'd say, 'Let's go for a ride,' and we'd end up at the plant," Doug recalled. "He'd spend the time talking to the people there about sports, farming, whatever."

Doug said his father would tease workers if the team they rooted for lost games recently. He'd ask about their families and check to see how things were going.

"One of the things that has made him successful is he has had good employees. He always tried to have a deep, personal relationship with them," Doug said. "He taught me the importance of treating everyone with respect. He learned a lot about printing by doing it, but he always told me to remember that others may know more than I do. And that's something I'm trying to teach my own children."

Breaking Into Business

Reynolds, 72, said he never set out to be a businessman. The Logan County native moved to Huntington when he was about 6 and went to Marshall University with the goal of becoming a teacher and a basketball coach. But while in college, he got a job with Chapman Printing sweeping floors, making deliveries and doing other odd jobs.

One day, the company's owner, John Chapman, asked Reynolds if he'd like to work for the business full time. Reynolds was still in college, and his decision came down to one of money.

"I think teachers were making $3,000 a year. He paid, gee, I think it was $6,000 a year. So I took it," Reynolds said.

He worked for Chapman for a while and then was drafted into the U.S. Army. When he came back to Huntington, he was given the opportunity to buy the business. He and another man, John Harrah, bought the company from Chapman in 1964.

"I've now been here 45 years," Reynolds said.

Since then, the business has grown to include 15 businesses under the Champion Industries umbrella, including Capitol Business Interiors, Stationers, US Tag, the Herald-Dispatch and businesses in Kentucky, Indiana, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.

Reynolds also has been very active in the banking sector in West Virginia and elsewhere.

According to a profile of Perry, who received the Lorenelle White Lifetime Achievement Award from The State Journal in 2008, Reynolds decided in 1981 that he wanted to buy stock in and control of the First Huntington National Bank. He ultimately gained control of the bank, and he and other investors approached Perry about changing state law to end what bankers saw as many limitations on their industry.

At the time, West Virginia banks were not permitted to have branches or ATMs. And only two banks in the state could loan $2 million to borrowers, Perry said in his profile. As a result, any time a large project was proposed in the state, borrowers either needed to get several loans or had to work with out-of-state banks.

Reynolds, Perry and others convinced lawmakers to change those laws. Perry became chairman of the board of First Huntington National Bank, and together he and Reynolds completed 22 bank transactions.

Those transactions eventually led to Key Centurion Bancshares Inc., which was the state's first $1 billion bank. Reynolds served on the bank's board and continued in that role after it became Bank One West Virginia Corp.

According to a profile of Reynolds on Forbes.com, Reynolds served as director and chairman of the board of Bank One West Virginia from the mid-1980s through the mid-'90s. And he still serves on the boards of the First Guaranty Bank of Louisiana, the Abigail Adams National Bancorp Inc. of Washington, D.C., and Summit State Bank of California.

The Benefits of Business

When asked whether he regrets going into business instead becoming a teacher, Reynolds admitted that he had a few. But he said those regrets are quickly offset by the benefits of being in business, of creating jobs and opportunities for people, of serving as a mentor for younger business people just like he was mentored as a young man.

"In no other way can you help someone more than to give them an opportunity for a job and to better themselves," he said. "We get the opportunity to do that."

When asked what advice he would give to a person starting out in business, he said the advice is simple: Don't expect overnight success and surround yourself with good people who know more than you.

"The biggest lesson is get a good group of people around you who are willing to step up and help," he said.

Reynolds said for him, those people included his first accountant, who "took a dumb kid like me who failed freshman accounting and taught me the basics," and Perry, who worked as his attorney.

"Many people helped me out over the years. For that I feel very lucky," he said.

But having those mentors has brought a lot of heartache, too, he said.

"When I was a young man, most of my closest friends were 20 years or more older than me. When I got to be around 50, I started going to a lot of funerals and lost a lot of really good friends," he said, adding, "That's been the biggest heartache ... losing the good people and friends."

Lessons to Pass Down

Beyond being a businessman, Reynolds is also a family man. He and his wife, Shirley, have been married for more than 40 years. They have two sons, Jack and Doug, and six grandsons ranging in age from 16 to 4 months.

Over the years, Reynolds taught his sons and grandsons the basics of business. Jack, who is 11 years older than Doug, had a lemonade stand when he was young. Doug had an egg business.

"Shirley and I were away for a weekend, and (Jack) stayed at his uncle's house," Reynolds recalled. "He had his uncle build him a lemonade stand, and when we got back he was out front selling lemonade. He had a sign up showing he cut the price from 25 cents to 3 cents. I asked him, 'Jack, why did you cut the price?' He told me no one was buying it at 25 cents, but they were buying it for 3 cents."

Reynolds said Jack, who like Doug serves on several corporate boards these days with Reynolds, has always had an amazing work ethic and to this day fixes things around the house for Reynolds and his wife.

"One day we had a plumber at the house, and Jack said, 'Dad, when I get older, I'm going to be a plumber so I can fix things for you,'" he said. "That's just the type of person he is. He was a great kid, and he's an All-American dad."

Doug said the egg business started after his dad bought him some chickens when he was 5 or 6.

"By the time I was 9 or 10, I had about 250 chickens. We'd go to dad's farm on Saturday and Sunday to get the eggs, and we'd spend the next three nights delivering them.

"I think it was the most profitable business venture I've ever had," he recalled, chuckling.

Doug would sell the eggs for $1 per dozen, and the business was booming. One night, Doug asked his father whether he could expand the chicken house so he could get more chickens. His father asked why.

"I told him if I can keep growing it at this rate, I can retire as soon as I graduate college," Doug recalled.

Not long after, father and son decided to morph the egg business and entered a business agreement with one of Reynolds' friends who owned nursing homes around Huntington. The younger Reynolds became the nursing home's exclusive supplier of eggs.

Reynolds also tries to teach his grandsons about business. On just about any Saturday, Reynolds can be found in his office on Huntington's First Avenue. And many Saturdays, his grandsons are at work with him.

"Work for them means going to the office with him for an hour shredding paper," Doug said of his older two sons, age 6 and 4. "The older grandsons go to work, too, but they do more than shred paper."

But Reynolds' soft side for his children, grandchildren and kids in general doesn't mean he's a pushover when it comes to business. In that arena, he's all business.

"His business instincts are unbelievable," Perry said. "And he has an almost photographic memory when it comes to numbers."

But Marshall Reynolds said his success is related to the friends he's made, the employees he's had, the family he loves and the hard work he's put in. He said everything, from his large cattle business near Gallipolis, Ohio, to the businesses in West Virginia and elsewhere, is successful because of the people around him.

"I fake it and act like I know more than I know," he said. "But if you can get hooked up with the right people, it's impossible to fail."