The roots of the ICCA go back to a trip of Brother Timothy Diener to Sweden and England in about 1973. Brother Timothy, who was the Cellar Master of Christian Brothers Winery in Napa, California, had already been collecting corkscrews for almost 25 years, and during that time he had become acquainted with other serious collectors including Jan Ekman in Sweden.
During that trip, Bro. Tim, as he was known, visited Jan who told him about another avid collector in London, England by the name of Dr. Bernard Watney.
Upon arrival in London, he contacted Dr. Watney and arranged to call on him. It was during that visit that each learned the other knew of ardent corkscrew collectors in other countries, and so the idea of a corkscrew collecting club was hatched.
The idea of an international club blossomed into an effort to contact those other collectors with the suggestion that a meeting be arranged in the near future.
As for the name, International Correspondence of Corkscrew Addicts, it is a fact that it came to Dr. Watney one morning as he was taking his bath. The inclusion of the term correspondence of course, was really a necessity, since in those pre-internet days, virtually the only reasonable means of international communication was by letter.
And, so it was that the ICCA was born.