05/06/2008                                                                    Contact: Fred Baumann
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June 21 Will Be a Big Day at the APC

Saturday, June 21, will be a big day, kicking off the busiest week of 2008 at the American Philatelic Center (APC) in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. To kick things off, Scopex 2008 — the annual exhibition and bourse of the State College-based Mount Nittany Philatelic Society — will get under way, with exhibits and a dealers’ bourse.

Visitors to the APC also will enjoy an Open House at the new home of the Headsville, West Virginia, Post Office and General Store on loan from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center and the availability the American Philatelic Research Library and the APS Sales Division.

At 1:00 p.m. Saturday, there will be a special dedication of the St. Louis Patio adjacent to the Gordon and Mary Morison Pavilion that houses the Headsville Post Office. The open-air patio’s name recalls the great contribution to American philately made by pioneers from Missouri’s Gateway City, beginning with John K. Tiffany, this nation’s most prominent philatelist and president for the first ten years of the American Philatelic Association (now the APS), in the 1880s and ’90s. David Straight, T. G. Rehkop, Gary Hendren, Peter Mastrangelo, and Charlie Peterson will speak at the dedication.

An hour later, in a 2:00 p.m. ceremony, an area in the APRL will be designated the Mary Ann Owens Thematic Reference Collection. Mary Ann Owens (1928-2005) was an American Topical Association Distinguished Topical Philatelist, one of the outstanding thematic collectors of her generation, and an articulate champion of the stamp hobby. Recently inducted into the APS Hall of Fame, Ms. Owens was as a member from 1979 to 1998 of the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee, the appointed body that makes recommendations on new U.S. stamp subjects to the Postmaster General.

The APRL stacks devoted to thematic and topical material will be fitted with a plaque dedicated to Ms. Owens, listing donors of $100 or more. Through the efforts of the ATA as well as friends and family, more than $12,000 has been raised to support this memorial effort.

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