Once I have more information I will post it up in tribute, but one of my personal favourite “old-school” cigar makers has passed on: Frank Llaneza died last night in Tampa, FL at the age of 90.

Here is some great background information on this wonderful man courtesy of an interview Llaneza gave with Gordon Mott for Cigar Aficionado some years back:

Frank Llaneza’s love affair with cigars began more than 60 years ago. The president of Villazon & Co., a subsidiary of General Cigar Holdings Inc. since 1996, Llaneza earned his credentials by starting in his father’s factory in Ybor City, Florida, sweeping the floors and learning the business from the ground up. Though his fortunes have changed dramatically, Llaneza himself hasn’t changed much since those humble beginnings. He continues to travel to Central America to check on the company’s factories firsthand, factories that he helped build in the 1960s after the American embargo of Cuba shut off access to the island. Today, after reaping millions of dollars from the sale of his company to General in 1996, Llaneza still goes to work every day and still sits in the office that he shares with his partner, Tino Gonzalez, just as he has for decades. The office is in the same turn-of-the-century factory that was once part of Tampa, Florida’s booming cigar manufacturing sector, which is now one of the older sections of the city. The only concession to his fortune is a Mercedes-Benz station wagon.

Like many cigarmakers of his generation, Llaneza lived through several cycles of boom and bust. His reputation, however, surpasses that of many of his peers. He could easily be called the godfather of Honduran cigars, although he swears that the industry there was under development when he first visited in 1960, two years before the trade embargo on Cuba was imposed. And, there’s the story about how he and his former partner, Danny Blumenthal, snapped up Cuban tobacco by the thousands of bales immediately before the embargo, and afterwards from companies that were jettisoning their Cuban stocks in favor of tobacco from other places. They bought enough to keep blending Cuban tobacco into their cigars well past 1965. Now, in his late 70s, Llaneza is making the transition to being a member of a big corporation. While he admits to not being used to the paperwork, he is excited by plans to launch some new brands as well as build on the marketing of his current stable of brands, which include Punch and Hoyo de Monterrey.

Thoughts and prayers are with Frank’s family.  He was a fixture in the cigar business for over 60 years and he will surely be missed!