Retired professor's second career leads to outreach
Retired Richmond Law Professor Wade Berryhill’s passion for cigars came about in a somewhat unusual way. He and his research assistant would get together to watch Boston Legal, enjoy a good scotch, and smoke cigars on a weekly basis. That hobby became a second career in 2011, when Berryhill and Kevin Edmiston, owner of Winston’s Humidor in Midlothian, Va., founded Orinoco 1613 Cigars in 2011. Orinoco, Berryhill explained, “was the original name of tobacco in Virginia and, therefore, America. In 1613, John Rolfe grew the first tobacco that was exported to Europe.”
Berryhill retired in 2007, after nearly 40 years on the Richmond Law faculty. “My son, Jordan, said, ‘At your age, dad, you’ve got about one business venture left. Do something you’re passionate about!”
The vision of the company was clear from the start. “It’s like a bourbon. It’s small batch ultra-premium cigars,” he explained. “We make about 35,000 per year, and that’s not very many compared to the big companies.”
Berryhill and Edmiston knew that the only way to fulfill their vision was to be as hands-on as possible. So they traveled to Esteli, Nicaragua, to personally blend the tobaccos. All of the cigars that Orinoco 1613 produces are totally handmade, from start to finish. “By the time someone smokes a cigar, probably two hundred hands have touched it,” he said. “The whole town [of Esteli] is dependent on tobacco. As a result, the highest paid workers in the country are the rollers. Eighty-five percent of the rollers are women, and they make between $3,500 and $5,000 per year.”
During his trips to Esteli, Berryhill was particularly struck by the level of poverty in the area – particularly when it came to the children living in orphanages. So he decided to do something about it. “We pack an extra collapsible suitcase full of clothes, soccer balls, things that they need,” he explained. “The nuns [who run the orphanage] are wonderful. The place is clean, the kids are well taken care of,” he said. After more than three years of working with the orphanage, Berryhill looks forward to getting even more involved in helping the children.
For anyone who studied under Berryhill, his passion for helping the children shouldn’t come as a surprise. That desire to help and care for those who need it defined his career as a professor. “I loved teaching. I loved it every bit, from the start to the finish,” he said.
As he fully settles into his first year of complete retirement from teaching, he reflects on how his life has changed. “I do miss it, but I also enjoy the freedom,” he explained. “I didn’t have to grade any papers at Christmas. I can schedule trips to Nicaragua, to Cuba, without having to look at the calendar.” With more than 20 stores carrying Orinoco 1613 cigars, repeated trips to the orphanages in Esteli, and a week-long cigar aficionado trip to Cuba coming up in early December, it seems that Wade Berryhill’s last business venture is off to a productive start.
--Brandon Metheny, L'14