Cecil, Sam K.: - SAM K. CECIL was born in Nelson County, Kentucky on 26th October, 1918. He started his career in the whiskey business in 1937 as a laboratory technician at T.W. Samuels Distillery, Deatsville, KY, but that career was interrupted when he was ordered on active duty with the 38th Division in January, 1941. After his five year tour of duty in WWII, mostly spent in the Pacific Theater, he returned and immediately set up a laboratory for Heaven Hill Distillery, where he spent seven years. He next joined J.W. Dant Distillery at Gethsemane when it was owned by Armand Hammer.
When Schenley bought the plant in March, 1953, he set up a laboratory and established their Quality Control program. In 1954, he joined Bill Samuels at the old Samuels Distillers, later Maker's Mark, at Loretto, KY. He retired from there in 1980 as Vice President of Production and Plant Manager. Since then he has spent a great portion of his time traveling with his wife all over the United States and Canada, plus about sixty countries around the world, as well as considerable island hopping and visiting foreign distilleries. The remainder of his time was spent writing The Evolution of the Bourbon Whiskey Industry in Kentucky.