Extremely Important- Please Read

[jhedrick83]

To our fellow Bums;

It is with much shock and sadness that we must inform you of the passing of our dear friend, founder, and mentor Don Debusk (Herf N Turf). We were notified by an email from a connection of his, stating that he had passed about a month ago.

So you all know, here is the transcript of the email:

Dear Cigarbum Team,
I just felt you all should know that Don Debusk, our dear friend and co-founder of Cigarbum has died. He passed away in about a month ago and I have been trying to reach out to people that he knew.

Please feel free to pass this along to the members:
The day before Don died, he texted me these photos of what turned out to be his last cigar............I am sorry..........trying to type and cry........Here are his words and photos (copied from a text message):

"After seeing all the pics of fun you're having on the lake today Hale, I decided to take a walk on the wild side my own self. Im smoking the mother of all Cohiba! The Behike 58x7 Che Guevara tribute. Fuck me Robert, it's seriously the best cigar I've ever savored. And that's sayin' something. It's likely one of the last of the great Cuban puros. They've been importing Nicaraguan baccy for years, but this thing was sooo fucking creamy".

I went to college with Don and the last great trip we made was to Italy last summer to watch F1 racing, eat delicious food and smoke amazing cigars.

His early death was a tremendous shock to everyone including his family. He was only 57, but he was quietly struggling with heart problems for many years. His maternal side of the family had several males die early of myocardial infarction and similar events.

Feel free to provide my email as needed to others.

Bert or Hale or Robert or RHale
Robert Bogden <[email protected]>

The Cohiba Don was referring to was also his last post on Cigar Bum. http://www.cigarbum.com/forum/los-ha...tml#post162993

For those of you who don’t know, Don is the reason Cigar Bum exists. When Puff went Poof Don, Grimm and Dave.73 gave us a new home. Not only that, but Don was a fountain of information on cigars and humidors. God only knows the number of guys and gals who learned from Don. He will be sorely missed. As we find out more, we will pass it along In addition to the many questions you may have and share with us surrounding this circumstance, you are probably asking "What is to become of Cigar Bum?" At this time, it is the intentions of all of us to keep Cigar Bum active as a home for our family. The site hosting and administrative needs have been taken care of up to this point through the stewardship and care of our co-founder and administrator Grimm. We may not be the biggest community out there, but we are an excellent community of Cigar and Pipe lovers. So, if you want to share a memory of Don please do. The next time you light up a cigar or your pipe, light it in honor of Don and in honor of how much he loved our community and its members.

May peace be with you Don Debusk, aka Herf N Turf.

[jhedrick83]

On a personal note, when I joined Puff in 2012 I was relatively green when it came to cigars. I never owned a humidor and had no idea how to property care for cigars. I learned the majority of what I know from Don’s how-to and educational posts. He was always willing to answer questions when I had them and never made me feel stupid or feel like I was wasting his time. If it wasn't for Don's kindness and knowledge I wouldn't enjoy cigars nearly as much as I do today. I was genuinely honored when he asked me to be a Mod and even more so when he asked me to be an Admin. That was 6/23 and the last time I spoke with Don. I had no idea that would be the last time I would ever talk to Don much less that he would pass two days later. He talked about what a great community Cigar Bum is and I couldn’t agree more. It’s the old adage of preferring 100 quarters to 2,500 pennies. I’m still in shock about Don’s passing. I hope that Cigar Bum will continue to carry the standard Don set for us and his spirit in creating Cigar Bum: to be a true community where we can learn, share and have fun together. Rest in Peace, Don. I will miss you.

[piperdown]

I'm just kind of shell shocked right now.
I've known Don through the forums now since 2009 and really got to know him a lot better once I became a mod on the old site.
Can't tell you how many times we ended up talking on the phone because he'd get to the point of hating to text, lol. We'd be texting then all of a sudden he'd call and most of them started off like this "F*cking texts, this is something we need to talk about, not text!"
And then the hours we called each other, texted (limited) and emailed to get this site up and running.

Don was a unique individual, always there with a reasonable word, and will be missed more than I can say. Rest in Peace Don!

[Lostmason]

It was Don's willingness to share and educate that inspired me to participate
in the forums here and on Puff.His posts on seasoning and caring for a humidor
are my goto manual,and I keep a copy handy for sharing with others.I always
admire the class and patience he showed in the face of adversity,he didn't
run and hide but stood out and faced his accusers with more dignity and
style than is seen anywhere else.Don is an inspiration to us all,not just smokers
but Men on how we should act and treat our neighbors.

[cheaphumidors]

Thank you for letting us know Jesse. I will certainly miss his wit and cigar enthusiasm. We have all lost a companion as well as a fountain of knowledge.

[Tombstone]

Thank you for passing along the sad news. Thank you to Don and all the support staff for starting this forum. Thank you to all the Botl and Sotl who make this a great places to share our hobby.

[Chadderkdawg]

Don was my first interaction in the cigar world a few years ago on Puff, rip buddy... Too bad photobucket is holding his pictures hostage, his last post here is kind of ruined now...

[Scott W.]

Knowing Don for nearly 10 years, I am completely shocked by this. We were making plans to get together after our drunken cigar smoking trek around NYC. During that trip we each bought a watch so periodically I'd get a random text that said "what time ya got?" And everytime I'd look at the watch I'd think of that day.

Don was an interesting guy with tremendous knowledge about a ton of things outside cigars and he excitedly shared his knowledge and no questions were out of bounds for him.

I'll miss him....wish I could have said goodbye to him

[projectsunfire]

I am literally speechless...I don't even know what to say. I never had the privilege of meeting him personally but through our shared love of cigars and audio and F1 I felt like I did know him. He helped me get my very first humidor seasoned back on Puff so many years ago. He politely answered so many of my stupid questions when I first got into all of this. I just really don't know what else to say...Just in total shock...RIP my friend. May there be an endless supply of pristine Cohibas and the screaming wail of F1 V12s up there for you

[DogRockets]

Thanks for sharing Jesse. That is so sad. I didn't interact much with Don over time but know that we have him to thank for our home here at the Bum.

Bums, burn a good one tonight in his honor. I'm not a big Cuban cigar guy, but I've got a couple Cohiba at home. Looks like one will be burned in his honor tonight.