Ralph C. Smedley

Ralph C. Smedley (February 22, 1878 – September 11, 1965) was the founder of Toastmasters International, an international speaking organization with more than 345,000 members in 142 countries and more than 15,900 individual clubs.

Smedley was born in Waverly, Illinois, a city twenty miles southwest of Springfield. He remained in Illinois most of his youth. After high school, he taught schools in the countryside before enrolling at Illinois Wesleyan University at Bloomington, Illinois. After his graduation in 1903, he started working at the local YMCA.

As Educational Director of the "Y" he discovered there was a need for training in speech. He began to design a club and 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. At each club meeting, 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.

The club only lasted a year after Ralph Smedley moved to the YMCA at Rock Island, Illinois as General Secretary in 1910. He 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.

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. Until then, the Toastmasters Club was an educational arm of the YMCA. 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.

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