Brian Abel Ragen has served on the board of the Eugene Field House Foundation for several years, and now holds the post of secretary. Ragen’s mother read him Field’s poems when Ragen was a child and worked as a newspaper columnist, the profession Field pioneered. The House is notable not only as Eugene Field’s childhood home, but also as the home of his father, Roswell Field. The elder Field was Dred Scott’s lawyer and made Scott’s case that he should be declared a free man.

Ragen has also been an active supporter of several arts organizations in St. Louis, including the Saint Louis Symphony and Opera Theater of St. Louis. He considers these two organizations to be among the most important arts organizations in America today.

He is an especially devoted supporter of Saint Louis Public Radio.

He also supports a wide-range of national charities, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Opera, The Charles M. Schulz Museum, The National World War II Museum, and the Smithsonian Institution.

He serves as an alumni interviewer for both Pomona College and Princeton University and has established scholarship or fellowship programs at both institutions. He has also created fellowships at Fontbonne University and William Penn College, his guardian Katherine Ragen’s alma mater. For several years he has also taken part in the selection process for participants in the St. Louis CORO Fellows Program in Public Affairs.

By far the largest part of Ragen’s charitable activities are carried out through church groups and orders of chivalry.