Patrick Ashby
Co-Founder & Editor in Chief
PatrickA -at- StogieGuys.com

Patrick Semmens
Co-Founder, Publisher & Web Editor
PatrickS -at- StogieGuys.com

George Edmonson
Tampa Bureau Chief
GeorgeE -at- StogieGuys.com

Jon Nathanson
Los Angeles Bureau Chief
JonN -at- StogieGuys.com

Patrick Ashby
Co-Founder & Editor in Chief

At a young age, Patrick Ashby’s father instilled in him a deep appreciation for cigars. “Son,” Steve would say, often on the golf course or the back deck of their Chicago home, “a cigar is not a habit – it’s a celebration.”

Patrick has since moved to the nation’s capital to pursue a career as a grant writer and a Masters degree in international commerce, but the esteem and regard for fine stogies his father so graciously handed down carries on with him to this day.

Patrick believes asking him to name his favorite cigar is like asking Ted Kennedy to name his favorite drink. From the mild-tasting Macanudo to the full-bodied Punch, from the miniature ascot to the colossal Churchill, Patrick counts himself lucky that cigars come in a plethora of shapes, sizes, colors, and flavors.

Patrick has a BA in political science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and lives in Alexandria, Virginia. When he is not puffing away on a decadent Dominican, Patrick enjoys golf, writing, loathing the government, rooting for Da Bears, the piano, politics, and American history. He can often be found at establishments that serve libations and are not averse to cigar smoke.

Patrick travels back to Chicago when he has time to visit friends and family and, of course, have a smoke with his dad.

Patrick Semmens
Co-Founder, Publisher & Web Editor

Spending the late summers of his youth on Long Island golfing and teaching sailing, cigar smoking came naturally to Patrick Semmens. And to this day, afloat under the power of the wind or while enjoying a round of golf remain two of Patrick’s favorite times to partake in a fine stogie.

Despite no longer living in New York, he feels strongly that his cigar preferences reflect his Brooklyn upbringing. Like New York City itself, “big and bold” is an apt description of Patrick’s cigar inclinations. While Padrons and CAOs represent his dependable favorites, he isn’t opposed to variety in his cigar choices, at times all together dispensing with his “big and bold” mantra.

In between living in Brooklyn and his recent move to the Washington area, Patrick spent four years at Colby College in Waterville, Maine where he earned a BA in government and a minor in philosophy, and he also spent one year traveling and working around the world. During that year he bartended aboard a charter yacht in New Zealand, worked on seismic survey ships searching for oil in the North Sea and South Atlantic, and taught English and coached soccer in a small village in Ghana, Africa.

Patrick now works at a non-profit legal defense foundation, and avidly follows politics. In his free time he enjoys tennis, golf, squash, sailing, watching the New York Mets or Rangers, and just relaxing with friends. With the exception of tennis and squash, he feels that all those activities represent prime opportunities to enjoy a stogie.

George Edmonson
Tampa Bureau Chief

Retirement in Florida seems to suit George Edmonson about as well as the large Hawaiian shirts that have replaced the white ones he wore for years. And what better to complement an air of relaxation than the enjoyment of a nice cigar?

After smoking for a few years, George, 56, remains a firm believer in Robert Louis Stevenson’s (slightly paraphrased) sentiments: “The world is so full of a number of cigars, I’m sure we should all be as happy as czars.” The list of cigars George enjoys is so long and changes so frequently, he’d be hard pressed to choose a favorite.

As a journalist for nearly 35 years, George’s work ranged from participating in the creation of USA Today to covering the September 11, 2001 attack at the Pentagon. Perhaps his most outstanding accomplishment was that he managed to end up with no unfinished novel yellowing in the bottom desk drawer.

He grew up in Richmond, Virginia at a time when the warm aroma of tobacco wafted freely from warehouses, and the price of a pack of cigarettes and a gallon of gas were roughly the same – around a quarter. Interests nowadays beyond cigars include listening to music (one major recent project was converting his LPs to CDs), reading, relaxing, and trying to learn more about the computer.

Living in Tarpon Springs, Florida, George is in the heart of U.S. cigar country. The Tampa-St. Petersburg area has an abundance of great shops, great selections, and great smokers. In all honesty, that wasn’t what led him to move to the area. But sometimes you just get lucky.

Jon Nathanson
Los Angeles Bureau Chief

Jon Nathanson introduced himself to cigars at the tender of age of 13, when he and some enterprising friends procured a fake ID and purchased a box of hand-rolled stogies at a smoke shop on the Las Vegas Strip. Having no clue how to smoke a cigar didn’t deter Jon, and he promptly inhaled a couple of premium sticks. His juvenile curiosity was rewarded with a severe headache, nausea, and a personal vow not to smoke again for as long as he lived.

Never a man of his word, Jon took up cigars many years later at the age of 25. Since then, he has learned to treat the hobby with the respect, appreciation, and determination it deserves. Now, at 28, Jon considers himself an ardent enthusiast, if not quite a seasoned expert. His personal knowledge of cigars, the cigar lifestyle, and the history of the industry is still a work in progress – but he is learning a great deal more each day.

Jon holds a BA in English and American Studies from Yale University, and he is planning to attend business school in the fall of 2008. He has been working for over five years in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles, the city where he was born and raised. When not working hard, or hardly working, Jon enjoys writing, running, fishing, pleasantly inept karaoke, and leisurely smokes on the beach in Malibu (where he is very careful not to start fires).

Jon’s enormous, garish, White House-shaped humidor is the envy of no one in particular. Nevertheless, it is always well stocked with a diverse array of cigars from around the world. Jon’s personal favorites include the Arturo Fuente Hemingway line, the Rocky Patel Vintage series, and most full-bodied maduros.