Was Richard Helmstetter still with Adam cues after they moved manufacturing to China?

[jay helfert]

He retired and got a uber$$$ retirement set-up from what i've been told. As far as the cues go i just start diggin' and usually find it. I've been interested in them since i started playin' in '78-'79. Really got into it because Billy was making JOSS's here in Tulsa. A little sidebar about RCH and this was told to me by a Callaway rep. When Ely Callaway took over Hickory Sticks they were having trouble boring holes through the wood shafts prior to putting in the steel-shaft cores. They brought in Dick as a consultant to help on this and then he was hired as lead designer. Don't know exactly how they found Helmstetter but boy did it work out in the long run.

Thanks. I do know (like you) that he got mega rich from his association with Callaway. I'm guessing he is in the 100 Milly club!

 

[Cornerman]

Ignore my entire post. This is my question.

Was Richard Helmstetter still with Adam cues after they moved manufacturing to China?

Would also like to learn when Adam moved to China, and if any Helmstetter cues were ever made in China.

Also, all interviews strongly suggest that Helmstetter had very little hands on in Japan for the Adam cues. He had other things going on, Miki and his crew built nearly all Adam cues when Helmstetter was the shop supervisor (Or whatever his official title was).

 

[Cornerman]

Thanks. I do know (like you) that he got mega rich from his association with Callaway. I'm guessing he is in the 100 Milly club!

He lives in Carlsbad, CA (if he is still with us). Last I connected with his people, he wasnt doing very well. That was two years ago.

 

[Cornerman]

Of course not. Look, Helmstetter by 1986 was Callaway Golf's chief designer. So even Japanese Helm's made after '85-'86 probably had little-to-no direct input by RCH. He most likely had some design input on the later Helm's/VIP's but all building was overseen by Miki Mezz.

Yuji Miki, for those that don’t know his name.

 

[garczar]

Yuji Miki, for those that don’t know his name.

Thanks. Met him at a trade show once and everyone was calling him Miki Mezz. Really a nice guy.

 

[SlowGuns]

Here’s some information about Dick and some other stuff I seen written throughout this email trail. Dick Helmstetter started manufacturing cues in the basement of my father’s billiards supply store on Varnum Street in Mount Rainier, Maryland in 1966. The way he came up with the lion logo, was that he was having a lowenbrau beer at our house during a crab feast. He looked at his beer and said ‘I’m gonna use this as my logo.’ In the early 80s, my mother and father went to Japan and Dick give them a tour of the factories. The Lion symbol was in the butt of the Adam cues, but may have been used in other places. When Dick was making the Helmstetter line of cues, he made a custom line that was signed, numbered and dated. They were numbered 1 through 50. I later found out from him directly when I met up with him at a BCA Trade show, that he only actually mad 25 cues, making them even more rare. I have #1 of 50 and I did have # 25 as well, but I gave away number 25 in a promotion we did during the time that the color of money came out. I’m still sick about it.