A posthumous honor was bestowed upon Esper G. Hayes and congratulations are sent to Richard F. “Dick” Winter, who have been respectively selected as the 2021 and 2022 Rowland Hill Award winners for an outstanding lifetime contribution to stamp collecting by the Southeast Federation of Stamp Clubs. The 2021 award was deferred due to the cancellation of the 2021 Southeastern Stamp Expo.
Hayes was the founder of the Ebony Society of Philatelic Events and Reflections (known as ESPER) and worked to increase diversity in our hobby. She passed away in 2019 and was inducted into the APS Hall of Fame in 2021.
Winter, of North Carolina, is one of the foremost authorities on North Atlantic mail and maritime mail. He also is a past-president of the United States Philatelic Classics Society and the North Carolina Postal History Society. He is a Luff award winner, and has signed the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists. The APS has published two of his books on transatlantic mail with a third volume currently in progress.
The 2022 Southeastern Stamp Expo was held January 28-30 and included the annual meeting of the Georgia Postal History Society, as well as regional meetings of the American First Day Cover Society and ESPER.
The multiframe grand award was won by Jon Krupnick for his exhibit, “Aloha ... The 80 Cent Diamond Head Stamp of 1952.” The David L. Hill multiframe reserve grand award went to Charles J. O’Brien III, for “Georgia Bicentennial 1933.” Robert Benninghoff claimed the Athens Philatelic Society Memorial one-frame grand for “The Irish Civil War January 1922 to April 1923.”
Many of the dealers at the Southeastern Stamp Expo spent the previous weekend at the Sarasota National Stamp Expo. The January 21 to 23 event included the participation of several APS affiliates, including the Canal Zone Study Group, Cuban Philatelic Society, Florida Postal History Society, United States Philatelic Classics Society and the United States Possessions Philatelic Society.
Vince King received the multiframe grand award for his exhibit “In the Beginning ... Timbromanie, The Proliferation of Postage Stamps Inspires a Collecting Revolution.” The multiframe reserve grand went to Vernon R. Morris for his “Evolution of Blood’s Local Post: 1842 to 1862.” Mark Schwartz received the Single Frame Grand for “Boston Paid in Grid.”
The late Harry Winter and his wife Dottie attended Women Exhibitors’ Festival in 2009.
The Sarasota show also includes a literature exhibition for philatelic articles. Darrell Ertzberger received the literature grand for “Rural Free Delivery in North Carolina,” published in the NCPHS Postal Historian. The literature reserve grand went to Louis Fiset for “Transpacific Ship Mail on the Eve of Pearl Harbor,” published in La Posta.
Last month, I sadly reported the passing of Kurt Lenz. This month, I have to report the passing of Harry Winter, part of another philatelic dynamic duo. From the 1980s until just a few years ago, Harry was exhibit chair for the Plymouth (Detroit suburb) Show. An APS member since 1969, Harry was also a major force for the Ann Arbor Stamp Club. He exhibited several diverse areas, including “Exchange Control Markings of Greece,” “North from Columbus – 19th Century Postal History of Delaware and Marion Counties,” “Switzerland: Charity Stamps for the Pro Juventute Foundation, the First 10 Years, 1912-1921,” “United States – The Adams Air Mail Pickup System” and “Unusual Stream Locomotives.”
Harry, and his wife, Dottie, who were partners in almost everything philatelic, also were regular APS StampShow volunteers and did most of the show’s awards engraving for many years. They also were both participants in the 2009 Women Exhibitors’ Festival held at the American Philatelic Center.
Philately ran strong in Harry’s family. His brother, William Winter, is also a frequent exhibitor. Dottie has family in State College, Pennsylvania, and staff came to expect regular visits from the Winters as they traveled from Detroit to State College and the Baltimore area, where William lived.