John R. Stanley

John Stanley is a retired computer payroll programmer for UNC Chapel Hill and has collected bottle openers since 1977. His mother brought home a board of wire “E” type openers. Like most opener collectors, John thought he was the only person collecting these neat little advertising items. Over the next few years his collection grew slowly until a fateful day in 1982 at a flea market when he found out about Don Bull and “Just For Openers.” His informant only had a name and town but Don received his request about JFO and opened a whole new world about bottle openers. Hundreds of other collectors existed and he was hooked for sure now.

John attended his first “Just for Openers” convention in 1986 and this further enhanced his desire to learn more about openers. He had never seen so many openers in one place. In 1994 he took over as “Editor” of the JFO newsletter and has held the position since. Also in that year he republished Don’s original JFO opener book and has continued to issue yearly updates since. With over 1,800 types and almost 20,000 listings, the “Handbook”, was the “bible” for bottle opener collectors.

John is a member of Just for Openers (JFO), the Canadian Corkscrew Collectors Club (CCCC), National Association of Breweriana Advertising (NABA), Eastern Coast Breweriana Association (ECBA), the American Breweriana Association (ABA) and the Breweriana Collectors Club of America (BCCA). Besides being the current editor of the JFO newsletter, John was former membership secretary for ECBA and executive secretary for NABA. His collection has grown to over 6,000 openers and corkscrews.