Tobacco Documents Online

i , Juntes P. Richurds TI's First Pres. Dies James P. Richards. first president of The 1'ubaccu Institute and an eleven- term South C.tt'olina Congressman. died Febtvary '_1 in Lancaster. South Car- ulina. He was 84. Richards became TI's president in 1958. and responded to some of the early anti-smoking charges. He left The lnstitute in 1960. returning to private law practice. Richards was first elected to Con- gress in 1932: he was later chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. In 1957. President Eisenhower ap- pointed Richards special ambassador to the Middle East. As the President s emoy. he supervised fund dispersal un- der the Eisenhower poctrine. deter- mining which countries needed U.S. aid. Richards also served as a U. S. dele- gate to the United Nations in 1953. Jtrdy Tttte. a Vir,cinirt Commonwealth L'nirersitp special education major, was selected /979 Queen of Tuhacco- lnnd ut the Vutiunal Tobacco Festival in Richmond. Vircinia. Slte cornpered tt,eainst 20 other candidntes, and re- ceived a S2,000 scholarship. Scientist "Sweeps" To Success w'IN STOv-SALE.M. v.C. - A broom is an unlikely tool wnh which to begin a career, hut for Jerry Dodd it proced to be the key to a scientific career. Dodd. a development technologist fur R. J. Reynolds Tuhaccu Cu...tarted out 10 years ago cleaning laboratories. Today. the 36-year-old King. N.C.. na- tive uses those same facilities in his daily projects as a highly skilled spe- cialist instrumental in creating new to- bacco blends. ".%ty intention was never to mop floors all of my life." Dodd says. "I knew I wanted to be in development work but I only had a high school edu- cation. So when I was offered the chance to become a janitor at Reynolds Tobacco's BowmanGray Development Center. I took it w ith the thought that I would be able to obtain promotions and work my way up." The Viet Nam war veteran ~uon gained a reputation for maintaining his area in spotless condition. And when he got caught up. Dodd began asking chemists about the gas chromatographs. centrifuges and other equipment that he saw. Dodd didn't know• it at the time, but his dedication and ambition were being noticed. After six months on the job. he was offered the chance to don a white lab coat and to begin learning his way around test tubes and beakers in the top secret Je%elupment facilitiee uf Reyn- uld-, Tobacco. "The following Monday I showed up for work as a technician. which was %ery interesting because I didn't know what I was doing;' Dodd recalls with a grin. "But they worked with me and I got involved in tobacco tlavuring. Jerrv Dodd development technologist j'or R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., care- j'tdh• irei,ehs a new tobacco blend Ten Yeurs ago Dodd tras a janitor in tfte same J'acilities he now uses in his dail,v sc•ientific projects. ate smoker. Had it not been for Steinmetz. we ~~~ might not now have more than a hun- n ' ( ~ ' dred im rovements on enerators and j ~ , p g motors. And once long ago when the By P. J. Hoffstrom Oliver Wendell Holmes. the old auto- crat of the breakfast table, once said: "Certain things are good for nothing until they have been kept a long while: and some are good for nothing until they have been long kept and used. I will name three of those which must be kept and used: "Meerschaum pipes. violins, and poems. The meerschaum is but a poor affair until it has burned a thousand of- ferings to the cloud-compelling deities." His son, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, was something of a chip off the old block in his liberal attitudes. Once a Washington matron, who hated to see a man enjoying a quiet smoke. spoke her mind rather sharply and the next evening at dinner she told the Jus- tice all about it. "I went right over and talked to that man. I told him how evil his way of life was and how much happier he'd be if he reformed. I talked to him two hours: " -Poor man;' murmured Holmes. "Poor, poor man!" If we are to believe published photo- graphs. most of his long life Winston Churchill liked to smoke cigars: so did J. P. Morgan. General Ulysses S Grant, the late President Kennedy, the one- time "Czar" of Congress "Uncle Joe" Cannon. and the electrical wizard, Charles Steinmetz. He was an inveter- anti-smoking fever was upon us-it ap- pears to be a recurring phenomenon- the executives'of the General Electric company. for whom he was a prized consulting engineer, decided to get on the bandwagon and posted a"No Smoking" sign. Steinmetz ignored it and a top execu- tive asked pointedly if he had seen the sign. Steinmetz didn't answer. The next ~Z_/ Prominent fi,qtrres who have ertjoyed tobacco products include (can you find them?) Einstein, Freud. Churchill, Presidents Grant, Ford and Franklin D. Ruo- set•elt. John ,tilitchell. Golda Meir, and George Meatty. The cigar smoker in tlte bottom rou•, middle, is Charles Steinmetz, the inventor. The Tobacco Observer 7 TIMN 0127047 hlends .inJ intemuttunal pruduct Je- ~elupment." Asertes of promotions at the de%el- upment laboratory followed during the next several years, while Dodd at the same time attended classes after wurk at a local business school to eurn his associate degree in business admints- tr.ttion. Dodd threw himself into a project in 1978 concerning a low "tar" cigarette. and found just the right blend of tobac- cos, filters, paper, and air dilution sys- temsy producing a cigarette that ,mok- ers in blind testing judged to be su- perior. The company agreed that the blends for both filter and menthol were excel- lent. and introduced the new cigarette. Dural 11. "That's one project I'll necer forget because of the time and challenge in- volved," Dodd says. "But this whole job has been a personal challenge to me. There was a time when people sald: 'He'll never do it.' But I knew what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go. And if you really want sumething, you'll get it." Dodd is contemplating returning to college and obtaining a four-year degree. "My progress has been even faster than I expected. I've learned that if yvu just put in the effort, people w i ll notice: " Dodd says. day he didn't show up and for two days nobody heard from him. Important work remained untouched and his asso- ciates began a serious search. The search ended in the lobby of a hotel where they found him sitting in a huge chair contentedly putf'ing on a ci- gar. They told him the whole company had been looking for him and asked why he had left so unceremoniously. Steinmetz simply took the cigar from his mouth and said: "I came here to have a smoke." After that the smoking rule was dropped. TI KU 000000706