CWNews
Don Fernando Leon
On April 29th, the cigar world lost a great man. Fernando Léon Asensio died at the age of 87 at his home in Santiago, Dominican Republic after a prolonged illness. Don Fernando, as he was known, was the son of Eduardo Léon Jimenes -- the founder of La Aurora. He began with the company working under his uncle Herminio in the fields. That was where he learned to love the soil and its fruits. Don Fernando is quoted to have said “The tobacco leaves are not handled, they are caressed.” He had been the company’s master blender in addition to President. He developed the Léon Jimenes line in 1987 as a tribute to his father. Don Fernando ran La Aurora from the 1950s until the mid 90s at which time his son Guillermo took over. Don Fernando remained on the board of Grupo Léon until his passing.
While the cigar business is one of the smallest segments of the vast Grupo Léon operation-- which dominates the Dominican with its Presidente brand beer and also is involved in banks and tobacco-- it remains one of the most important because it is the company’s roots. La Aurora is the company that began everything, being the oldest cigar maker in the Dominican Republic, founded in 1903.
Don Fernando Léon, 1922-2009
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Frank Seltzer (Mowee) is a former network correspondent who now owns a media consulting company in Dallas, TX. A regular cigar smoker since 1973, Frank runs the DFW Cigar Society, a group that has almost 300 members who get together twice a month to trade smokes and lies. He also runs away as often as he can to his condo in Maui... hence the name Mowee (which, by the way, was the way Captain Cook originally spelled the island when he heard Hawaiians speak it.)
