Edgar M. Cullman (January 7, 1918 – August 28, 2011) was an American businessman who served as President and CEO of

General Cigar Company General Cigar Company is the largest manufacturer of premium cigars in the world. It is a subsidiary of Scandinavian Tobacco Group with North American headquarters located in Richmond, Virginia. Company history In 1961 General Cigar, which was ...

and is credited with transforming the image of cigars.

Biography

Edgar Meyer Cullman was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family on January 7, 1918, the son of the son of Francis Nathan Wolff and Joseph Cullman Jr. He comes from a family that was deeply involved in the tobacco business. His great-grandfather was the wine and tobacco merchant Ferdinand Kullman who emigrated to the United States in 1848. His grandfather and uncle, Joseph and Jacob, founded the tobacco brokerage house Cullman Brothers in 1892. His father owned farmland in the Connecticut River Valley that grew the tobacco used for cigar wrappers. 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 Howard S. Cullman (September 23, 1891 – June 29, 1972) was an American civil servant, philanthropist, and board member of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for 42 years, serving as Chairman of the Board for ten years, from 1945 to 1 ...

, founded the investment company Cullman Brothers Incorporated to purchase Benson & Hedges. He had two brothers: Joseph Frederick Cullman III, who served as chairman and CEO of

Philip Morris Phil(l)ip or Phil Morris may refer to: Companies *Altria, a conglomerate company previously known as Philip Morris Companies Inc., named after the tobacconist **Philip Morris USA, a tobacco company wholly owned by Altria Group **Philip Morris Inter ...

; and Lewis B. Cullman (married to

Dorothy Cullman Dorothy Cullman (February 18, 1918 – April 6, 2009) was an American television producer and philanthropist. She and her husband, Lewis B. Cullman (January 26, 1919 – June 7, 2019), contributed a combined $250 million to numerous organization ...

), known as the "father of the leveraged buyout." Quo Vadis former 2024 jeh

In 1940, Cullman earned a B.A. in economics from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in 1940. After school, his father secured him an entry-level job hand-rolling cigars at H. Anton Bock in Manhattan. 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

which owned the brands White Owl, Tiparillo, Tijuana Smalls, and Macanudo. In 1962, he was elected president and CEO of General Cigar; he grew sales at the company from $70 million and 11% market share in 1963 to $220 million in 1967. General Cigar benefited from the switch of many tobacco consumers from cigarettes to cigars propelled by a 1964 surgeon general's report that demonstrated a link between cigarette smoking and cancer; and introduced smaller and milder cigars to attract cigarette smokers and the young market. In 1976, the company's name was changed to Culbro Corporation and he diversified the company into snack foods,

Ex-Lax Senna glycoside, also known as sennoside or senna, is a medication used to treat constipation and empty the large intestine before surgery. The medication is taken by mouth or via the rectum. It typically begins working in around 30 minutes whe ...

, packaging, real estate, and in 1996, opened the cigar club Club Macanudo in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. In 1981, he retired as president but remained as CEO until 2005 when the company was sold to

Swedish Match Swedish Match AB is a Swedish multinational tobacco company headquartered in Stockholm. The company manufactures snus, nicotine pouches, moist snuff, tobacco- and nicotine-free pouch products, chewing tobacco, chew bags, tobacco bits, cigars, ...

. He died on August 28, 2011, in

Stamford, Connecticut Stamford () is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut, outside of Manhattan. It is Connecticut's second-most populous city, behind Bridgeport. With a population of 135,470, Stamford passed Hartford and New Haven in population as of the 2020 ...

, aged 93.

Personal life

In 1938, he married Louise Bloomingdale (1919–2014), granddaughter of Lyman Bloomingdale; they had three children, Edgar Cullman Jr., Lucy Cullman Danziger, and Susan Cullman Kirby (married to attorney John Kirby). His son Edgar is married to interior designer Elissa Cullman, daughter of restaurateur

Sol Forman Sol Forman (July 1, 1903 – November 22, 2001) was an American restaurateur who owned Peter Luger Steak House. Biography Forman was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan around July 1, 1903. He dropped out of high school to support his fami ...

who owned

Peter Luger Steak House Peter Luger Steak House is a steakhouse located in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York City, with a second location in Great Neck, New York, on Long Island. It was named to the James Beard Foundation's list of "America's Classics" i ...

and whose siblings still own and operate the restaurant.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cullman, Edgar M. 1918 births 2011 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople American tobacco industry executives Businesspeople from New York City Place of birth missing Philanthropists from New York (state) Cullman family Bloomingdale family 20th-century American philanthropists