APS Hall of Fame

Alfred F. Kugel (1930-2022)

Al Kugel (1930-2022) of Hinsdale, Illinois, died May 11, 2022, at age 91.

Kugel was associated with many philatelic organizations, but especially Chicagopex, the Military Postal History Society, and the American Philatelic Society. He served as a director of the Chicago Philatelic Society (CPS), and as exhibit chairman and general chairman of Chicagopex. The CPS honored Kugel with its Saul Newbury and Aubrey Berman awards.

A Life Member of the Military Postal History Society, Kugel served as its director, vice president and president. At the time of his death, Kugel had the lowest membership number (434) of any active member.

With his experience in the investment field, Kugel brought financial stability to Chicagopex, considered to be one of the best World Series of Philately venues. As a member of the American Philatelic Society’s finance committee, he advised the APS on its investment portfolio.

Kugel was an expert on military postal history and had more than 100 single and multiframe exhibits in this field. He contributed scores of articles in this area, many of them in the Military Postal History Society Bulletin. He also contributed to The American Philatelist; Collectors Club Philatelist; the Postal History Society journal; Rossica, the journal of Russian philately; and German Postal Specialist, among others. Kugel and co-author Ed Dubin received the United States Stamp Society’s Barbara Mueller award for the best article in the 2017 issues of The American Philatelist.

Al was an APS accredited philatelic judge and served on CANEJ. In 2005, he was awarded the John N. Luff award for distinguished philatelic research and in 2011 he was elected to the APS Writers Hall of Fame. He was a council member of the American Philatelic Congress, an officer in the Collectors Club of Chicago, a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London, and he served on the Smithsonian National Postal Museum’s Council of Philatelists.

Reginald Stafford Healy (Captain Tim Healy) (1892-1947)

Reginald Stafford Healy was born in Sydney, Australia in 1892. He fought through World War I with the Australian Army and was part of the Allied forces at Gallipoli.

Reginald Healy came to the United States to learn the oil business in Texas. There, he met his future wife, Margaret, a schoolteacher, and they moved from Gainesville, Texas to New York Coty, where he ran the financial side of a small oil company.

The business collapsed in 1929, and after that, he did whatever he could to survive, his son recalled, including sweeping streets. For a time, he had a radio show called “Captain Tim's Stamp Club of the Air” on NBC. Healy used his son’s name as his on-air personality.

In the early 1930s, Henry Ellis Harris partnered with the consumer products firm Procter and Gamble to produce a radio show using “Captain Tim” to sell stamps. For a small price (and a couple of box tops from some Ivory Snow detergent), a person could be a stamp collector. Another Harris insight was that collectors not only needed stamps, but they needed a low-priced series of albums to put them in. The radio show that Harris produced and hosted by “Captain Tim” Healy, offered not only stamps but a small album to put them in. Captain Tim’s albums were produced in the millions. 

Thanks to Captain Tim’s exciting tales of battle and stamps, thousands, young and old, joined the rank of collector.

Dr. Stanley Bierman (1935-2022)

The following was written by Paul Holland for the Philatelic Literature Review, third quarter 2022.

When Stanley M. Bierman, M.D., died at the age of 86, the world of philately lost a philatelic scholar, masterful raconteur, and an important part of its institutional memory. 

Although he was a prominent physician, Bierman worked diligently at assembling one of the world’s greatest private philatelic libraries, putting it to good use as a tool for research on philately’s greatest stamp collectors. 

Perhaps even more importantly, Bierman also actively worked to preserve philatelic oral history by initiating a series of insightful video interviews with some of the most important living figures in philately. He is shown interviewing Raymond Weill (right) on May 26, 1986, in Chicago at AMERIPEX ’86. Without Bierman’s strenuous efforts, much philatelic history and many fascinating anecdotes would have been lost forever. 

Bierman’s masterful 2016 summary article on Philatelic Literature, Its Lore and Heritage is available in the Philatelic Literature Review. Furthermore, the surprisingly entertaining and fascinating story of how Bierman’s own philatelic library came to be formed is recounted in earlier PLR articles published in 1984-1985.

Having traveled a great deal during my scientific career, I first became aware of Bierman’s book on The World’s Greatest Stamp Collectors at a Smithsonian Museum shop in an airport before flying home from East Coast meetings in the early 1990s. It’s not only an enjoyable read, but is carefully documented with more than 420 references. 

On another trip, I met Weill at his stamp shop on Royal Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans and enjoyed talking with him. As soon as I learned that Bierman had conducted detailed interviews with Weill and other famous philatelists and that these were available on DVD for the benefit of the American Philatelic Society, I bought them, greatly enjoying the many anecdotes that are now permanently preserved.

Finally, I’ll never forget the occasions when I was invited to visit Bierman at his home in Beverly Hills for philatelic holiday brunches. After showing me parts of his famous library, we would sit outside by the swimming pool across from the Japanese tea house with the other guests and talk about stamps until it was time for the luncheon. After more “stamp talk” we would gather inside for a showing of one of Bierman’s interviews with commentary by the interlocutor himself.