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William Ziegler

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I joined the Brothers yesterday. I enjoy pipes and the various tobaccos we smoke - I have for close to 58 years - at least that's when I purchased my first drug store pipe as a 16 year old. Yet, there were earlier influences such as Bertram's of DC. My dad worked in the Pentagon in the 50s and Bertram's had a store there and as a child I remember my fascination with the pipes and tins of tobacco. Then in KCMO dad would take us after church to lunch on the Plaza where across the street Fred Diebel - Pipemaker & Tobacconist had his shop. As a youngster I left many a nose prints on the plate glass windows. I was also influenced by reading Sherlock Holmes. In High School my first part-time job was at Mr. Jones' hardware store in Platte Woods, MO. Mr. Jones was a kind man who smoked a pipe. I will always remember the aroma of Diebel's White Burley. One day while manning the front counter the Post came and there was a package for Mr. Jones from Diebels. In the package was a GBD Prehistoric #9240. Mr. Jones left the bill laying next to the register and my eyes nearly fell out of my head when I saw the pipe cost $20. OMG, I then and there resolved to become a hardware man because they must be wealthy. Little did I know that down the road one day I would work for Fred Diebel and I would own a GBD Prehistoric #9240.
GBD Prehistoric #9240.jpg


When I went to college I got a better pipe (Amphora Bent Bulldog - $4 with mail in coupon) from the Yellow Bowl I bought at the grocery store next to the hardware. There was a drugstore in Aggieville at KSU in Manhattan, KS that carried some fine pipes. It was there I saw my first Danish handmade and it blew my mind. If I only had $35. Then too I spent 4 years drooling over an Iwan Ries catalog that came yearly and the Danish pipes they carried - if I only had $50. Then I met a pipe smoking professor who changed my life.

Jim was one of the kindest men I have ever met. A clergyman and professor of religion, he was an Irishman with a twinkle in his eye, a full beard and pipe in his mouth. After class we started talking pipes and he introduced me to Rattray's Old Gowrie, Red Rapparee, Black Malaroy and other wonderful blends. I would meet in his office and home and we would puff our pipes. He had a collection of beautiful pipes. He never had any children and in some ways he and his wife adopted me. After Jim past away he left me many of his pipes - Castello, Savinelli Autographs, Comoy, a set of carved briar heads, and a host of benchmades. When I graduated from Kansas State I moved to Overland Park, KS where I got a job with Fred Diebel, Pipemaker & Tobacconist.

I became a store manager at one of the satellite stores in Overland Park. While at Diebel's I learned how to make, repair, and sell pipes and all things tobacco. It was at Diebel's I "rubbed shoulders" with Carl Ehwa, Master Blender for Diebel. Carl, who would write the book: The Book of Pipes and Tobacco, Random House, 1974 and later go on to found McClelland Tobacco, was a good friend who died too young.

While at Diebel's I collected many pipes, mostly GBD, Comoy, Dunhill, Charatan, Barling, W.O Larsen, Stanwell, and other Danish makes as well as meerschaums and the eternal Calabash. In the late 70s I started graduate school in KCMO, leaving Diebel's. However I continued to make pipes making money for school. I still make a few pipes for myself and friends. My last pipe which I made for a wonderful man's 80th birthday:
WMZ Benchmade.jpg


In 1980, I joined the Air Force where I worked as a chaplain for 30 years, retiring a full colonel in 2012. My time in the Air Force afforded me much travel, especially Europe where I could visit many pipe shops such as Fribourg & Treyer, J.J. Fox, Astley's, Dunhill, and Davidoff's in Geneva. In the States I always sought out B&M shops and number among my great experiences Cellini's in Chicago before they closed. Among my other endevors is a love for fine cigars. Diebel was one of the first in Kansas City to carry good cigars, post embargo, and I learned about those, too. One of my best memories in London was visiting 221b Baker Street with my young son and sitting with him in Sherlock's consulting room, calabash in hand.

Our hobby is one that, as in my case, has brought many great experiences and memories!
 
Welcome to BoB!

You might have noticed a delay in your post appearing. New members cannot post links or photos right away. I honestly do not recall what the forum software has set for the delay. So if you post more photos or links it will go to an approval queue where an admin or moderator has to manually allow the post to appear. At some point, after so many posts or amount of time, that will no longer be a problem. It's there as an anti spam feature. You did nothing wrong at all. We may have that information buried in some new member stuff some place.
 
Very pleased to have you with us. Is that a Mont Blanc on the stand in your pic? Do you collect pens as well as pipes?
Blackhorse, well I have some other nice pens, but I don't really collect them. The MB was given to me when I finished my Ph.D. work. I always wanted one and was first introduced to MB by Carl Ehwa at Diebel Tobacco in the 1970s. When my son graduated from law school, I gave him one. I am kinda old world in that I like fountain pens.
 
Welcome to Bob.

Sounds like you've a long history as a pipe smoker.

I would love to here more stories from the past. Especially regarding Carl as I'm a big McClelland fan.
Carl was a fascinating man, ahead of his time in many ways. In believe he paved the way for other boutique pipe tobacco producers as he developed his skills and and went on to start McClelland tobacco. He was in his early 30s when I was in my early 20s just out of college. Carl was a self-taught man who started as a clerk at Diebel's Country Club Plaza store before I joined the company in 1973. Fred gave him an opportunity to become Diebel's master blender after Fred decided to get into manufacturing his own pipe tobacco . Prior to that the store sold mostly private label (Sutliff) and of course European tinned tobaccos. Carl was always disdainful of "drug store" American made (Burley based) pipe tobacco - he called it "dreck", often pointing out the dust, stems, and low grade leaf. At Diebel's he started to produce VA based flakes and other blends. He was always interested in presentation or packaging, noting that quality tobacco did things right, from tip to stern; this is why McClelland labels were so beautiful - embossed - and special editions had their own wrapper with wax seals. In many ways, Carl was obsessed with old world quality. While at Diebel's he wrote his book, and in it gave thanks to Fred for giving him the space and time to work on it with his wife, Maria. I, with my wife, would gather with Carl and Maria at their home in Kansas City for food and drink, often. Tullamore Dew was his favorite whiskey, which he introduced me to, and I've been drinking whisk(e)y ever since. At one of these gatherings I met Dr. W.C. McClelland, Carl's grandfather who he adored and for whom Carl's future company would be named. At these gatherings I often listened to Carl's dream for his own pipe tobacco manufactoring company and he took that dream and turned it into reality, no small feat. I have other memories, but I've written enough and lunch calls. Thaks for asking.
 
Carl was a fascinating man, ahead of his time in many ways. In believe he paved the way for other boutique pipe tobacco producers as he developed his skills and and went on to start McClelland tobacco. He was in his early 30s when I was in my early 20s just out of college. Carl was a self-taught man who started as a clerk at Diebel's Country Club Plaza store before I joined the company in 1973. Fred gave him an opportunity to become Diebel's master blender after Fred decided to get into manufacturing his own pipe tobacco . Prior to that the store sold mostly private label (Sutliff) and of course European tinned tobaccos. Carl was always disdainful of "drug store" American made (Burley based) pipe tobacco - he called it "dreck", often pointing out the dust, stems, and low grade leaf. At Diebel's he started to produce VA based flakes and other blends. He was always interested in presentation or packaging, noting that quality tobacco did things right, from tip to stern; this is why McClelland labels were so beautiful - embossed - and special editions had their own wrapper with wax seals. In many ways, Carl was obsessed with old world quality. While at Diebel's he wrote his book, and in it gave thanks to Fred for giving him the space and time to work on it with his wife, Maria. I, with my wife, would gather with Carl and Maria at their home in Kansas City for food and drink, often. Tullamore Dew was his favorite whiskey, which he introduced me to, and I've been drinking whisk(e)y ever since. At one of these gatherings I met Dr. W.C. McClelland, Carl's grandfather who he adored and for whom Carl's future company would be named. At these gatherings I often listened to Carl's dream for his own pipe tobacco manufactoring company and he took that dream and turned it into reality, no small feat. I have other memories, but I've written enough and lunch calls. Thaks for asking.

Thank you so much for your memories William, much appreciated here and fascinating to read. Carl sounds like a man I'd love to have a smoke and a drink with.
 
Thank you so much for your memories William, much appreciated here and fascinating to read. Carl sounds like a man I'd love to have a smoke and a drink with.
Carl loved his Craven A cigarettes. I wish he had smoked only his pipes, but his artistic temperament and energy drew him to the cigs. It might have been 1975 Carl got a lead on a tobacco cutter designed to cut cakes of pressed leaf. It was owned by US Tobacco and they wanted to sell it. He invited I and my wife to join he and Maria on a road trip to Richmond, VA to check it out. Carl knew the master blender of US Tob., and he invited Carl to come check it out. It was the cutter that was used to make Edgeworth Slice. An interesting aside, that was Stalin's favorite pipe tobacco which he would have brought to him by his Russian diplomats through communication pouches.

In any event we met the MB for US tobacco and he invited us to his house which sat on an overlooking of the Pamunkey River on property where Martha Dandridge Custis had grown-up. The original home was gone, burned down at some point, and the property now belonged to the MB of US Tobac. Next to the house was a walnut tree that had to be 300 years old. I remember he told us that it was to be used for Martha's dowry to make furniture for her home when she married. Well, since she married George, she had no need for it and there it still stood. The property also had a bricked tunnel to the river that could be used for escape in case of Indian attack. The MB (I can't remember his name) had caved the entrance in because he feared when his children were little they would go into it and perhaps get hurt. I also know another reason Martha married George. The view to the Pamunkey River was so similar to the view from Mount Vernon to the Potomac, she must have felt right at home.

Well, Fred Diebel bought that cutter. When Fred got out of the tobacco manufacturing business I am sure he sold it to Carl for use at McClelland factory.
 
Welcome from SoAz! Some really interesting recollections from the good old days. I know that cutter had a historic life before McClelland. I don’t know what happened to it after they shut down.
I have a MT birth certificate but my earliest days were spent in western ND. My peeps came from Norway and settled in the Williston/Watford City area that we farm to this day.
 

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