Edgar M. Cullman

[2] His grandfather and uncle, Joseph and Jacob, founded the tobacco brokerage house Cullman Brothers in 1892.

[1] His father owned farmland in the Connecticut River Valley that grew the tobacco used for cigar wrappers.

[1] In 1929, his father purchased the Webster Tobacco Company after the 1929 stock market collapse and in 1941, his father and uncle, Howard S. Cullman, founded the investment company Cullman Brothers Incorporated to purchase Benson & Hedges.

[1] After school, his father secured him an entry-level job hand-rolling cigars at H. Anton Bock in Manhattan.

[1] In 1961, Cullman and a group of investors bought for $25 million a controlling interest in then the 2nd-largest cigar producer in the United States, New-York-based General Cigar Company which owned the brands White Owl, Tiparillo, Tijuana Smalls, and Macanudo.