Although he's perplexed at the very idea, Linwood Hines is a highly respected and even revered figure in the pipe community. He thinks he's a regular, uninteresting guy, but everyone else thinks he's an icon.

Linwood is a founding member of the Conclave of Richmond Pipe Smokers (CORPS), celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Since its second year of operation, the club has hosted pipe shows that have gathered attendees worldwide and raised tens of thousands of dollars for local charities. For most of its years, Linwood was the master of ceremonies and the face of the show.

He is among the earliest Doctors of Pipes, awarded the honor in 2003 after having been deeply involved in the pipe community for more than 20 years. His beginning launched a natural progression, though, starting before he knew that a pipe community existed. He was well aware of pipes, however, from an early age.

Early Exposure to Pipes

"My father smoked a pipe," says Linwood, "like so many of us can say, at least people my age. I'm not quite sure that as a youngster, I was fascinated with pipes, though I enjoyed the aroma. It was just something my Dad and my grandfather did occasionally."

Perhaps pipe smoking was initially a way for him to connect with his dad. "It was after he died," says Linwood. "He passed away when I was 13; it was a pretty rough time. He was a Navy vet, and in World War II, he was on one of the ships that surrounded the atolls for the atomic bomb tests. A lot of the people on his ship and other ships passed away very young from cancer. I guess it wasn't long after my dad died that I became fascinated with pipes. He had a mahogany cabinet where he kept his pipe rack and tobacco tins. He mainly smoked Half & Half and Carter Hall. And he had one of those Kaywoodie catalogs in there that just had all the different shapes and pipes, and I zoned in on that."

Linwood still has that catalog, which fascinated him with all of the exotic shapes and interesting possibilities. "Around the time I was 14 or 15, I tried smoking, sneaking around privately. My mother had given away my dad's nice Kaywoodies to her uncle, who smoked a pipe, and I was left with the Grabows and the Wally Franks, that kind of thing. But in my dad's cabinet were a bunch of coupons he had saved. In those days, tobaccos often included coupons you could redeem for pipes, and these were for Dr. Grabow pipes. There must have been 100 of those coupons. So I wrote off to Dr. Grabow and stuck a bunch of those coupons in the envelope, and they wrote a letter back because I had mentioned my dad. They said, 'We would like to engrave your initials on the pipe.' I guess because I sent so many coupons. There were probably 50 coupons in the envelope. So they sent me a nice little Apple, very small, about a group 2, engraved with my initials, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever."

Unfortunately, he lost that pipe a couple of years later. He had a long phase of pipe smoking when nothing worked right. "I never could keep a pipe lit; I puffed like crazy, burned my tongue, all of that. But I kept trying."

Better Success With Pipe Smoking

It was thanks to a high school girlfriend that Linwood started to see some success in his pipe smoking. "Her dad smoked a pipe; he smoked Mixture 79 all the time. And so for Christmas, she gave me a Calabash and a pound of Mixture 79. Somehow, for some reason, I could keep it lit and enjoy it. I don't know — maybe I was just finally getting better at it. I still have that Calabash. The girlfriend didn't last, but I still have the pipe."

When it was time for college, Linwood took his pipes with him, the Calabash and his father's pipes. It was in the late '60s when professors smoked their pipes as they lectured and students smoked at will in the classroom. "I tried to be a philosophical student pipe smoker. It didn't work out. I wasn't cut out to be an academic intellectual. Maybe taking a couple of weeks every month to go surfing in Florida had something to do with failing out."

College students weren't drafted, but now Linwood was no longer a student and swiftly found himself in the Army. He had neglected to bring his pipes, but the PX saved him. "With the few bucks I had, I bought some Half & Half and a bright yellow The Pipe in the PX. I smoked that off and on through basic training and AIT [Advanced Individual Training]."

He considers himself to have become a real pipe smoker during that time. "Of course, you could smoke in the units, offices, and in the field. Back then, you could smoke everywhere."

I guess it wasn't long after my dad died that I became fascinated with pipes

Linwood's The Pipe saw considerable service; he estimates that he smoked several thousand bowls through it. Sadly, it did not survive. "I tried smoking it while riding my motorcycle home, and the bowl dropped off the stem. A car ran over it." It was an unfortunate end, but it had an illustrious career.

After the Army, Linwood took several jobs, got married, and found himself more interested in pipes. He ran a bicycle shop for a while, and he was a mechanic at a Volkswagen dealership. He went back to school and took it more seriously — no more surfing. He now had a child at home, a mortgage, and was working multiple part-time jobs while trying to fit classes into his schedule.

The Part-Time Job That Started It All

His life changed when he wandered into a Tinder Box at his local Richmond, Virginia, shopping mall. "I walked in there and the lights in my head started flashing, bells whistled, all that kind of stuff. I was enthralled with the pipes. I had never been in a pipe shop before, and I was just gaga, my eyeballs were popping out. My part-time jobs weren't quite paying the bills. My wife worked at a bank, but the pay was dismal, so I couldn't make any purchases. But the owner of the shop was there; I asked if she might have a job opening." His schedule was tight; he could be available only on particular nights and maybe half a day on the weekend, but that seemed fine with the owner, who hired him.

"I started working at the Tinder Box and took a couple of my dad's Grabows and Wally Franks to smoke, but I immediately began scheming how to buy one of the gorgeous $20 pipes on display. The good thing was that you made a little commission when you sold pipes. It took me about six months to build up enough to buy a Freehand-style Stanwell. Fancy Freehands were very popular at the time. Ben Wades and Preben Holmes pipes were a big deal then."

I tried to be a philosophical student pipe smoker. It didn't work out.

The Tinder Box job became his relaxation time while balancing school, studying, and other part-time jobs. "It was cool to go one night a week and half a day on the weekend and just sit there and smoke and chew the fat with people and try to make commissions so I could buy pipes."

His responsibilities included keeping track of pipe inventory and making lists of items that needed reordering. He didn't place those orders himself — until, during one shift, a sales representative from Lane Limited assured him that Hilda, the store owner, had said that Linwood could order a dozen or so pipes at his discretion. "It turned out that wasn't true," says Linwood. Some sort of miscommunication had occurred. "We sold a lot of Petersons and Sasieinis, that sort of thing, and I thought it would be nice to get in some more expensive pipes, so I ordered a bunch of Charatans. A couple were Executive models that were pretty expensive — by far the most expensive things in the store."

When Hilda saw these pipes, she said, "What the hell are these?" She wasn't particularly pleased to risk so much on pipes that had never been in the shop.

Linwood assured her that they would sell, and they did. All sold within a week. Linwood didn't know that until he came in for his Tuesday shift and saw they were gone. He thought Hilda had sent them back, but she said, "Your Charatans all sold. Order some more."

The shop became known for its Charatan inventory and attracted pipe smokers from all over Richmond. "In the first year and a half, we sold $65,000 worth of Charatans. It was an impressive number for the late 1970s."

Pipe Smokers Congregate

Pipe smokers tended to gather on Tuesday nights, when Linwood worked, to see what new Charatans had arrived. "A bunch of professors from the University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University bought them. Tuesdays are the slowest retail nights on earth, but we were gathering a regular crowd — they were standing out in the mall smoking, and evidently, there were complaints about all the smoke, and someone called the owner. So Hilda came in and raised hell with me. She said, 'If you want these people to get together, start a club.' And that's how the CORPS started."

I immediately began scheming how to buy one of the gorgeous $20 pipes on display.

By then, Linwood worked for Philip Morris International and finished his engineering degree. He spent the next 31 years working for Philip Morris. He had given up his part-time mechanic job but liked the work at the smoke shop and held onto it. It was a nice change to have a full-time job, though. "I thought I was going to make a million dollars a year at Philip Morris because everybody thought everybody at Philip Morris made a million dollars a year. Sadly, it wasn't true."

Philip Morris had lots of meeting rooms and allowed groups to use them. "The man in charge of public relations was a pipe smoker, and of course, I smoked my pipe at work. We would see each other and compare notes on what tobaccos and pipes we were smoking. He smoked Dunhills and Barlings — he was an executive and could afford that. I told him we were starting a pipe-smokers club and asked if we could meet there, and he set it up. In July of 1984, we had our first meeting."

The Early Years of the CORPS

The club membership snowballed, largely because of the participation of a local celebrity: Aiden Aaroe, a major personality on WRBA radio and a pipe smoker. "He was a Walter Cronkite sort," says Linwood. "Everybody listened to WRBA, and he promoted the club on the radio; he even attended a few meetings." With that help, new members came and the CORPS became a rather large club with some fun activities.

"We had a grand time. We met at Philip Morris a few times for almost a year and then branched out. We did club runs at various tobacco shops in Northern Virginia, Washington, D.C., and wherever. For meetings, we ended up in a place that originally had been a meeting room upstairs at a movie theater that had gone bust in an old section of Richmond. It was a big meeting room and we had little programs: how to clean a pipe and helpful demonstrations like that."

About 40-50 people typically attended meetings, with over 100 official members. There were too many members for field trips. Pipe shops they might travel to, for example, couldn't accommodate 50 people. Another problem then presented itself: the theater where they met became a church, and pipe smoking was no longer welcome on the premises, so another location for meetings was necessary. "We tried various places," says Linwood, "and then we started going to different pubs where we could smoke. There are still a few in the Richmond area, but not many. Like other clubs now, we pretty much meet in cigar shops."

Tuesdays are the slowest retail nights on earth, but we were gathering a regular crowd

The first CORPS pipe show was in 1985, only a year after the club's formation. It was a one-day show held at a hotel off the Interstate and primarily featured displays by collectors. "We couldn't believe the reservations for tables that came in — all through the mail, of course. We had to rent tables because the hotel didn't have enough. It was just phenomenal. We sold 65 tables and crammed them in this ballroom, which was not big enough. Of course, the place was full of smoke, and somebody in the business next door called the fire department because they saw the smoke coming out of the doors."

Afterward, there was a dinner featuring filet mignon and wine. "We put out flyers and thought we might get a couple of dozen people, but so many showed up that we had to scramble and almost turn people away."

For most of its years, the Richmond pipe show featured an auction to benefit local children's charities. "We did that every year until the last year at the convention center. It just got to be too much because we would take half of the day on Sunday to work the auction and be on the microphone. Many people were kind enough to buy auction items, but it became disturbing — one of the children's charities that we donated to wrote us a letter, if you can believe this. We didn't raise huge amounts, maybe $2,000, but that was a lot of money for us. And this one charity, which was a children's home, wrote us a letter and said, 'We appreciate the money, but can you donate it through a non-smoking organization?'

"That kind of angered everybody, so we started doing different things with it in the last few years. One auction's proceeds went to a young lady who had been in an automobile accident, and the medical bills were horrendous. And so we donated the money to that cause. One year, we did a scholarship for a disabled person, and I think that was the last one, in 2012 or 2013."

Pipe shops they might travel to, for example, couldn't accommodate 50 people.

The show grew to a respectable size. "The most tables we ever had was 156, and over 600 people came through the door." The Richmond show has always had a reputation for friendliness and a laid-back attitude with less emphasis on transactional energy.

The CORPS 40th Anniversary

The show for 2024 is noteworthy. The CORPS is partnering with Sutliff Tobacco Co., which is celebrating its 175th year just as the CORPS celebrates its 40th. "They're going to do some tours at their factory on Friday, and we're discussing plans with them for our dinner Friday night. This year's show is at the Keystone Truck & Tractor Museum in Colonial Heights, Virginia." The dates for the show are September 13-15, and more details are available on the club's website.

It promises to be a terrific opportunity for friends to reunite and for new friendships to commence. It's the nature of pipe smokers. "I think it's such a wonderful thing that you can see a pipe smoker wherever you go, walking down the street or wherever, and you automatically want to talk with them; you have to meet that person. I don't think I've ever run into another pipe smoker anywhere in my travels who hasn't been friendly."

Many people were kind enough to buy auction items, but it became disturbing

Linwood has found pipe-smoker friendliness everywhere he's gone. "I had to go to Finland for Philip Morris for about a month and a half, and Finland at that time was a big smoking country. It was in the winter, and it snowed a lot. When it didn't snow, it froze. But walking from the hotel to the offices and factory where we were working, I must have seen a thousand pipe smokers. Even though you're on your way to work, bustling through the snow, you must stop and talk. Most of them spoke English at least well enough that we could communicate. As I said, I think it's a worldwide phenomenon, and I defy anyone to name another hobby where you can just stop somebody on the street and you're immediate friends."

Linwood's Collection

"My pipes are mostly English. I have some Italian pipes, but most of my pipes are Ashtons and Dunhills, and of course, Charatans. Besides them, I have some Castellos, a few artisan pipes from around the world, not many, and some Petersons. I enjoy straight pipes, mainly, with a few bents for reading. I enjoy my Dunhills and the Ashtons.

As for shapes, his favorite is the large, straight, squat Bulldog. "I like a group 6, so a decent-sized bowl. After that, most are straight Billiards or straight Dublins, along with a bunch of Lovats, mainly by Castello. But mostly Billiards. I'm a boring old guy; give me a good old Billiard anytime."

For tobaccos, he tends to avoid Aromatics and he's very careful with Perique. He's done some of his own experiments and blending with Sutliff's 507C, which is similar in flavor to the old McClelland 5100 bulk. "It isn't quite as rich as 5100, but I put some in the oven for a couple of hours at 170 degrees last year, and it came out pretty darned close. I've mixed that with Latakia, a little Perique, and some Turkish, and I've played with it a lot."

One of his favorites is Edisto by Low Country. "It's particularly good for morning errands. Before I retired, my smoke for the morning commute was always McCranie's Red Ribbon or 5100. And my reward in the evening was McClelland's 2010. For Englishes, I always gravitated to Rattrays, Red Rapparee, Accountant's Mixture, and Dunhill Standard Mixture Medium. Good old English tobacco, now made in Denmark or Germany."

I don't think I've ever run into another pipe smoker anywhere in my travels who hasn't been friendly.

He smokes English blends only every third or fourth day now, staying mainly with Virginia blends. One of his favorites, ever since his days at the Tinder Box, is Rattray's Hal O' The Wynd.

Linwood will probably be smoking it at the CORPS show in September. It's been 40 years since he helped start the club, and it will be a historic gathering. Anyone with the opportunity should stop by and meet him. He's very approachable, with not a pretentious or egotistical fiber in him, just a great guy who loves pipes and enjoys the companionship that his favorite hobby has afforded him over the decades.