American Philatelic Society -- Luff Award

Nancy B. Clark, Stanley J. Luft, and Peter P. McCann have been chosen to receive the 2008 John N. Luff Awards. The recipients will be honored at the 2008 StampShow Awards Banquet on Saturday, August 16, in Hartford, Connecticut.

Nancy B. Clark of Marstons Mills, Massachusetts, has been selected as the recipient of the 2008 Luff Award for Exceptional Contributions to Philately.

Nancy’s widespread accomplishments touch on many fields in organized philately; however, her efforts on behalf of youth philately stand out among her many activities. Beginning some thirty years ago she was a councilor working with boy scouts to help them achieve a badge in stamp collecting. She founded and ran stamp clubs that held regular meetings and exhibitions in three schools with grades from K to 8 plus a magnet high school. In 1982 she hosted a regional Benjamin Franklin Leader Exchange Conference for teachers at the ROPEX show.

Prior to the AMERIPEX show in 1986 she worked to develop the Y.E.S. (Youths Exhibiting Stamps) project. She trained postal service personnel in exhibiting techniques and judged the final entries. This exhibiting promotion enabled five youngsters and their parents to attend AMERIPEX at USPS expense. In 1986 Nancy received a grant from the Council of Philatelic Organizations to design and develop youth areas for national shows. She hosted the first FIP-level youth judging seminar in North America. At the 1994 Peach State Show she set a record with fifty-four frames of youth exhibits at a national show.

Nancy hosted a youth philately symposium in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and served as co-chair of Stamp Camp USA in 2002. She chaired the committee for the youth and beginners area at WASHINGTON 2006, partnering with the APS and the USPS. She prepared materials for and participated in an outreach program for 2,500 teachers for the Smithsonian Institution’s “Teacher’s Night.”

Nancy’s service to the American Philatelic Society has been long-standing at so many different levels. These include chairing the youth activities committee, serving as APS representative to the FIP youth commission, developing youth judging guidelines, presenting postal history seminars, and working as a nationally accredited judge for more than twenty-five years. She has served on several APS committees including judges’ accreditation, international relations, and postal history. She was an APS director at large 1993–1997 and served as society treasurer 1999–2003. For several years she has organized and hosted the weekly “APS Stamp Talk with Nancy Clark” on wsRadio.com.

She has served on the juries of eight international exhibitions and was the U.S. commissioner to seven international shows and team leader for three international shows. She served as vice president and president of the Rochester Philatelic Association and chaired Ropex. Nancy was a founding member and president of the Georgia Federation of Stamp Clubs, and a founder of the Peach State Stamp Show, which she chaired throughout its WSP accreditation. She served as president of Olymphilex 1996 and as secretary and director of the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors. In 2003 she was a founding member of the Auxiliary Markings Club and currently serves as its president. She is a director of the Massachusetts Postal Research Society and treasurer of the Mobile Post Office Society.

Nancy Clark has written dozens of articles that have appeared in The American Philatelist, the American Philatelic Congress books, Scott Stamp Monthly, and many postal history journals. She has been honored with the Georgia Federation of Stamp Clubs Service Award, the Rowland Hill Lifetime Achievement Award of the Southeast Federation of Stamp Clubs, the APS Ernest Kehr Award, and the Clyde Jennings Award of the EFO Club. She is a Fellow of the Royal of London. She has won national and international gold awards for her many different exhibits. In view of her many years of service in organized philately and her continued and dedicated promotion of youth philately, the committee recommends that she be honored with the Luff Award for Exceptional Contributions to Philately.

Stanley J. Luft of Golden, Colorado, has been selected as the recipient for the 2008 Luff Award for Distinguished Philatelic Research.

Stan has contributed significant research in the realm of French philately as reflected in his exhibits and his writings. He is an internationally recognized expert in all areas of this field. He has written or co-authored more than 100 articles that have appeared in various journals, but largely the France & Colonies Philatelist. His writings have also appeared in The American Philatelist, Postal History Journal, Collectors Club Philatelist, The American Philatelic Congress Book, Military Postal History Society Bulletin, London Philatelist, and Feuilles Marcophiles.

In the field of books, Stan wrote the three-volume work The Regular Issues of France According to Their Normal Postal Usage (1974, 1979, 1984). He is also the author of Military and Postal History of the Revolutionary Armies in the West of France 1791–1802 (1993). With co-author William Waugh, he wrote A Chronology of French Military Campaigns and Expeditions with Their Postal Markings 1815–1983 (1984).

His personal research is recorded not only in his writings but also in his many exhibits that have achieved more than thirty gold awards, several reserve grands, and one grand award nationally. At FIP exhibitions he won three large golds as well as a prix d’honneur at London 1990. The areas on which these researched exhibits and his writings have touched include French revolutionary and Napoleonic armies, French military campaigns from 1823, Alsace-Lorraine from 1870, the 15-centimes Sage issue, the 30-centimes Cameo Sowers, the 25-centimes Marianne de Décaris, and Paris suburbs 1760–1883.

Stan was a founding member of the Acadéemie Européene de Philatélie in 1978, a member of the Union Marcophile since 1974, and was elected a corresponding member of the Académie de Philatélie in 2001. He edited the France & Colonies Philatelist 1993–2000 and served as a director of the society 1971–2007. He has been an accredited chief philatelic and chief literature judge. He is past president of the Philatelic Society of Cincinnati and is a long-standing member of the Rocky Mountain Stamp Show organizing committee where he has served as president and show chairman. He is past president of the Collectors Club of Denver, served on the council of the American Philatelic Congress and chaired its Boehret Award committee.

He is a fellow of the RPSL and has won the France & Colonies Philatelic Society Gerard Gilbert Memorial award for philatelic literature three times for his books. In view of Stan Luft’s research contributions to the philately of France and related areas, he is recommended for the 2008 Luff Award for Distinguished Philatelic Research.

Peter P. McCann of University Park, Florida, has been selected as the recipient of the 2008 Luff Award for Outstanding Services to the American Philatelic Society.

Peter has served the Society in many ways over a number of years. He is an APS accredited chief philatelic judge and chief literature judge and has judged at more than 125 national shows since 1986. He served on the Committee for Accreditation of National Exhibitions and Judges 1993–2007, and was chairman of CANEJ 1997–1999. In the 1990s he chaired the International Relations Committee and also the Greater APS Fund Committee for four years each.

From 1995–1997 he was APS Vice President and Recorder on the Board of Vice Presidents, and from 1997–1999 was Chairman of the BVP. He was elected president of the APS in 1999 and served two terms, after which he continued service on the board as the immediate past president from 2003–2007. He was the APS delegate to the Fédération Internationale de Philatélie (FIP) from 1997–2005. During his many years of service to the Society he has been a salient promoter of the APS in his national and international activities.

Peter continues as an ambassador of the Society through his service on international juries and his current office in the FIP. He has judged at eleven FIP exhibitions since 1993, several times as vice president of the jury and as team leader. In 2004 he was elected vice president of FIP, responsible for FIAF, Statues and Rules, and the Postal History Commission.

His enthusiasm for philately is reflected in several dozen articles that he has written, and his service as co-editor and co-author of books pertaining to his interests in the islands of the Caribbean and South Atlantic. He has exhibited nationally and internationally, and has won national grand awards with two different exhibits. Peter has always been willing to share his knowledge with collectors and has presented judging and exhibiting seminars at APS shows.

The high regard in which Peter McCann is held in the philatelic community has been recognized with many awards and honors, including fellow of the RPSL, Philadelphia National Stamp Exhibition National Merit Award, trustee of the Philatelic Foundation, co-chairman of the Council of Philatelists of the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum, board of directors and committee chairman at WASHINGTON 2006, past president of the American Philatelic Congress, the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors, and the British Philatelic Study Group.

He is also recipient of the Eugene Klein Memorial Award of the American Philatelic Congress, the Phoenix Award of the Phoenix Philatelic Association, and the Skavaril Award for service to the St. Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Philatelic Society. In 2007 he signed the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists.

In view of his long and dedicated service to the APS, the Luff Award Committee proposes that Peter P. McCann be honored with the 2008 Luff Award for Outstanding Service to the American Philatelic Society.

Congratulations to the 2008 Luff Award honorees!