Ralph C. Smedley

Ralph Chesnut Smedley (February 22, 1878 – September 11, 1965) was the founder of Toastmasters International, an international public speaking organization. He spent 60 years developing the Toastmasters concept from a series of unsuccessful local clubs to the successful organization that flourishes today. He was also a long time official with the YMCA and a pioneer of adult education and lifelong learning.

He remained in Illinois most of his youth. After high school, he taught at schools in the countryside before enrolling at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois. He graduated in 1903 and then started working at the local YMCA, where he delivered speeches and conducted meetings as the educational director. Those experiences gave him the idea of a club to teach public speaking skills. Laying the foundational methodologies which are followed in Toastmasters meetings today, the members took turns speaking and taking part in leadership in every meeting. Smedley and other more experienced men evaluated the short speeches given by younger men willing to improve. However, he had to eventually relocate to a YMCA in Freeport, Illinois and the lack of proper leadership did not allow the original club to survive.

In Freeport, he tried again. This time he was trying to encourage local businessmen to sign up and improve their speaking abilities. After he was transferred, that club failed, as did his later club efforts at YMCAs in Rock Island, Illinois and San Jose, California.

His Toastmasters idea finally caught on for good when he relocated to take a job at the YMCA in Santa Ana, California. On October 22, 1924, he organized the first fully successful club in the newly built YMCA building that eventually became Club No. 1 of Toastmasters International.

Smedley was an active member of the First Presbyterian Church of Santa Ana where he served as a Sunday school teacher for several years.

Smedley has been described as a modest and quiet person. His daughter Betty remembered that he was a stamp collector who exchanged stamps with people all over the world. He played the piano and the flute for many years, and enjoyed camping and fishing with his family.

Legacy

Illinois Wesleyan University recognized Smedley's contributions by conferring him the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters (L.H.D.) in 1950. Santa Ana, California named a junior high school after him in 1955.

Works The man behind the rules: An account of the life and work of Henry Martyn Robert, author of Robert's Rules of order (1937) The Amateur Chairman (1952) Speech Evaluation: The Art of Constructive Criticism (1940) The Voice of the Speaker (1949) Speech Engineering: 25 Ways to Build a Speech (1952) The Amateur Chairman (Toastmasters International) (1952) The Great Peacemaker (1955) Basic Training for Toastmasters (1956) The Story of Toastmasters: Reminiscences of the Founder (1959) Beyond Basic Training (1961) The Advanced Speaker (1963) Personally Speaking: Selections from the Writings of Ralph C. Smedley (1966)