The CPCC Doctor and Master of Pipes Awards: They’re Not Forever Programs: Difference between revisions

A look back to other awards for our community is in order. Throughout time, there have been sponsors of various awards and honors for pipe smokers, pipe collectors, and those affiliated with the tobacco industry. Here’s a brief look into Europe’s award history. The “Pipeman of the Year” changed to “Pipesmoker of the Year” under the auspices of the British Pipesmokers’ Council. The idea was to honor distinguished enthusiasts and raise cash for charity. Sir Harold Wilson received the “Pipesmoker of the Year” in 1965, “Pipeman of the Decade” in 1976 and, later, the unique “Pipeman of the Century” award. In 2003, Comedian and novelist Stephen Fry was selected as the 39th and last “Pipeman of the Year.” After 39 years, the program was terminated because the organizers feared the new laws banning all advertising and promotion of tobacco. (Although this program has not been revived, the Federation of British Pipe Clubs which coordinates the activities of all English pipe clubs has its own annual “Pipe Smoker of the Year” award.) Britain’s prestigious Worshipful Company of Tobacco Pipe Makers & Tobacco Blenders, founded in 1619, is known for its an annual “Retailer of the Year” award, but there’s much more to this 600-year-old association. In 2010, It formed the Tobacco Pipe Makers and Tobacco Trade Benevolent Fund to help anyone who worked in the trade in any capacity or to their dependents and instituted an annual £50 scholarship to any young man of “satisfactory academic ability and notable qualities.”  

In 2020, I learned of an impressive distinction for someone I have known for years, Don Duco, the curator of the Pijpenkabinet, the Amsterdam Pipe Museum that houses some 30,000 pipes and related utensils. “For his long-term study of and commitment to the history of the pipe and the culture of pipe smoking, Don Duco has been granted the prestigious European Heritage Award, or Europa Nostra Award. This is the highest honour in Europe for projects and individuals committed to heritage.” (“Mr. Don Duco,” europeanheritageawards.eu). European Heritage awards are granted on behalf of the European Commission. In another unusual gesture from outside the industry, Al Pascia, an Italian pipe retailer founded in 1906, received an award from both the Lombardy Regional Authority and Milan City Council for being an historic establishment. It’s evident that in certain quarters in Europe, tobacco people are rewarded, not ridiculed or reviled. I can’t recall another person associated with tobacco in any who has received such a prestigious award from an organization or institution outside the industry as had Duco. I don’t believe that the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Historical Association, or any other U.S. organization would recognize an American of equal stature and dedication.  

What’s our history of awards and honors? In 1919, the International Jury at the San Francisco Exposition awarded the Grand Prix to Velvet tobacco, because of its superior quality. At that time, it was the highest honor ever paid to a smoking tobacco. Bakelite was named in honor of its inventor, Dr. Leo Hendrik Baekeland, who discovered the synthetic material in 1907. Thirty years after Herbert Hoover left office, H. B. Moseman, Secretary of the International Association of Pipe Smokers Clubs, sent him a letter in May 1964 requesting that he accept the “Pipe Smoker of the Year” award at its August 14th banquet in New York. Hoover’s secretary replied that Hoover “deeply appreciates your gracious thought,” but declined to attend due to illness and a schedule restricted at age ninety per doctors’ orders.