Classics society announces award winners

By Michael Baadke

The United States Philatelic Classics Society honored several prominent collectors at the St. Louis Stamp Expo March 22-24.

Among the deserving award recipients is James E. Kloetzel, the former editor of the Scott catalogs, who continues to contribute significantly to the catalogs in his current role as editor emeritus.

Kloetzel was awarded the Dr. Carroll Chase Cup, which the society presents to authors of articles, books or other studies concerning any U.S. stamp issued to 1894, including postmaster provisionals, locals, carriers and back-of-the-book material.

"Between 1994, when he joined Amos Press, and 2012, when he retired, Jim Kloetzel contributed profoundly to the improvement and modernization of the Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps and Covers," the society noted in announcing the award. "Not since John Luff and Jim Hatcher has any individual made such a substantial contribution to this key resource, on which so much of our hobby depends."

Kloetzel is recognized for numerous improvements in the catalog, including the listings for Confederate postmaster provisional stamps, for carrier and local stamps, and for the types of the 3¢ 1851-57 stamp.

The society also recognized Kloetzel’s efforts in successfully converting to color stamp images in the catalog, and in the development of new sections devoted to essays and proofs, U.S. registry exchange labels, and the use of U.S. stamps and postal stationery within the seceded independent states.

The society’s Distinguished Philatelist Award went to collector and researcher Dwayne O. Littauer, whose exhibits of United States-German trans-Atlantic mail and United States-France trans-Atlantic mail have won numerous national and international awards.

Littauer also serves as an accredited philatelic judge and has contributed articles to the Chronicle of the U.S. Classic Postal Issues, the journal of the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society, of which he is currently the foreign mail section editor.

For his book Hawaiian Foreign Mail to 1870, Fred Gregory is this year’s winner of the Stanley B. Ashbrook Cup, awarded to authors of articles, books or other studies concerning U.S. postal history from the colonial period to 1894.

The Susan M. McDonald Plaque, awarded for articles about U.S. classic postal history published in a given volume of the Chronicle, went to David D’Alessandris for his article "Mail Between the United States and Newfoundland" in the November 2012 issue.

Greg Sutherland was awarded the Tracy Simpson Cup for outstanding service to the society.

Additional information about the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society is available at www.uspcs.org.