by Wynne Hunkler, Cigar Enthusiast
 ight in our own backyard in North Texas, hidden away in a dusty carpentry shop near the “technology corridor” of Richardson, Texas, is one of the finest cabinet humidor builders in the country. This shop is the home of Staebell & Associates, creator of “The Aristocrat” by master craftsman, Bob Staebell.
After representing a number of manufacturers in the medical and pharmaceutical industries, Bob moved to North Texas from Iowa in 1979 and established his own company distributing medical prosthetics. When asked about the transition from prosthetics to cabinetry, Bob’s response is “the fundamentals of orthopedics is carpentry … the tools used in orthopedics are (similar in nature) to those used by carpenters”.
Custom Designs can be selected
from hundreds of wood grain varieties
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Bob Staebell and an “in-process” cabinet
customized for one of his recent clients
In 1992, Staebell & Associates became an official North Texas company. Bob was building custom furniture, until one of his previous customers approached him and asked if he could build him a humidor. Bob agreed to build one, as long as the customer promised to explain more about the humidor, as Bob was (is) not a cigar smoker and had no previous experience with humidors. To better explain what he had in mind, the customer brought Bob an Elli Bleu and a Dunhill desktop to examine for functionality and appearance.
After crafting an elegant desktop humidor for this customer, Bob continued building desktop humidors, primarily in the wholesale area, with occasional retail boxes resulting from requests at art festivals and other shows. Precipitated by retailers needing larger (cabinet) units but not able to keep them “in stock” for customers, Bob decided to try an experiment and offer a larger unit direct to the public. (continued...)
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