Regis McCafferty: a Founding Writer of the NASPC

Regis McCafferty is an American figure who combined a career as a fiction writer with pipe collecting in a single life. He is known in the community under two distinct roles: as the author of stories and novels whose characters rarely put their pipes down, and as one of the founders of one of North America's long-established pipe associations.

Publisher biographies note that, after a period spent in New Mexico, he settled in northern Ohio; this detail has not been independently confirmed. That the association he founded is based in Ohio, however, is a matter of record.

Founding the Association

In 1993, McCafferty decided together with Phil Bradford that a club should be founded in Ohio. The aim was not narrowly defined: to promote pipe smoking, share knowledge of tobacco, and build a network of friendship among smokers. The club launched under the name Ohio Pipe Collectors; keeping information flowing through a newsletter, keeping membership open to all, and holding at least one gathering a year were the founding principles adopted from the start.

According to the association's records, by the spring of 1997 membership had spread across more than twenty states and into Canada; a name tied to a single state no longer matched its scope. The board renamed the club the North American Society of Pipe Collectors (NASPC). The association's two lasting institutions are the bimonthly newsletter The Pipe Collector, made up largely of member-written contributions, and the annual pipe gathering held in Columbus at the end of August. This structure is regarded as one of the most durable American examples of the "newsletter plus annual show" model seen throughout the general history of pipe clubs.