The multi-faceted author has written more than one thousand articles on pipe smoking for numerous national and international publications. From 1975 until 1989 he was the marketing consultant for the largest retail tobacco chain in the United States and is personally acquainted with most of the world’s individual pipemakers and pipemaking companies.

The author has officiated at pipe-smoking championships in the U.S., created the original National Pipe Carving Contest in America, and has designed limited edition pipes for various companies. He is a member of the Académie internationale de la pipe and the honorary French pipe smoking society of the Confrérie des Maîtres-Pipiers de Saint-Claude. In 1994 he was knighted by the International Tobacco Collegium as Germany’s Pipe Knight of the Year.

A dedicated collector of smokiana, the author began with a single pipe while in college; he now owns more than 2,000 pipes, many of which he smokes.