I recently learned that a good friend of mine, Bob Runowski had passed away. If you're American and a fan of Cornell and Diehl Pipe Tobaccos (I happen to be both) you'll recognize Bob's name. For many years he blended for Cornell and Diehl. He was a huge advocate of a pipe tobacco genre known to many as Codger Burley. Bob's blends were essentially built around re-creating those classic American tobaccos of the pipesmoking hay day of the 40's and 50's. The term Codger Burley is in fact a term I myself coined. These were the tobaccos that the old codgers of my youth smoked seemingly nonstop (Prince Albert, Half and Half, Edgeworth Ready Rubbed, Five Brothers, etc.) Bob was indeed responsible for numerous fantastic Cornell and Diehl blends including my all time favorite, Old Joe Krantz (which was named after his maternal grandfather.)

Aside from being a fellow pipe and tobacco enthusiast, Bob and I were very good friends. I spoke to him on the phone often and we discussed everything from Pipes to politics, tobacco to classic literature and music. I called him this evening because it had been a while and his wife told me he had passed away. Rest in piece my good friend, I'm sure you're in heaven even as we speak with a bottomless pipe full of Edgeworth Ready Rubbed.