Since 1940, the Luff Award has been the most prestigious award that the American Philatelic Society can bestow upon living philatelists. The Luff Award was established in memory of John N. Luff, APS president from 1907 to 1909, who was considered the most prominent American philatelist of his era.
The APS Luff Awards are available annually for:
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- Distinguished Philatelic Research
- Exceptional Contributions to Philately
- Outstanding Service to the American Philatelic Society
The 2023 Luff Award Winners
For Distinguished Philatelic Research
Jerzy W. Kupiec-Weglinski
Jerzy W. Kupiec-Weglinski of Beverly Hills, California, is the recipient of the 2023 John N. Luff Award for Distinguished Philatelic Research, American Philatelic Society.
By profession, physician-scientist (M.D., Ph.D.) and the Paul Terasaki Distinguished Professor of Surgery, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, he has published over 500 scientific papers on various aspects of organ transplantation.
As a philatelic researcher, collector, and exhibitor, Kupiec-Weglinski has focused on the postal history of airmail services in his native Poland. His exhibit, Airmail in the Polish Territories (1914-1939), has won three FIP International Large Golds (New York-2016; Bangkok-2018; London-2022) and was shown in the Championship Class of IBRA-2023. Other major postal history exhibits include Flown Mail of the Siege of Przemysl (1914-1915); The Air and Defense League (L.O.P.P.) in Polish Aerophilately (1923-1939); and Directional Labels in Polish Aerophilately (1926-1928). At the national level, Kupiec-Weglinski has won several Golds, Large Golds, and Grand Awards, participated in the US “Champion of Champions” competition four times (2008, 2010, 2011, 2015), and received seven APS Research Awards at WSP competitions since 2004.
A prolific writer, Kupiec-Weglinski has published over 100 philatelic articles, most of them consisting of original research, on both sides of the Atlantic. Some notable examples include The American Philatelist (The US Stamp Society Barbara R. Mueller Award for the best article of 2012); The Congress Book of American Philatelic Congress (The Walter R. McCoy Award for the best article of 2011 and 2012; and The Erani R. Drossos Award for the best foreign article of 2020); The Airpost Journal (The L.B. Gatchell Award for the best article of 2013); the Bulletin of Polonus Philatelic Society (the Distinction Award for the best article of 2015). In addition, he published his research in The London Philatelist; The Collectors Club Philatelist; Philatelic Literature Review; La Catastrophe; Austria; Bulletin Cercle Aérophilatélique Français; ARGE Polen; ARGE Danzig; and Polish Filatelista, Przeglad Filatelistyczny and Historyczno-Badawczy Biuletyn Filatelistyczny (HBBF; Historical and Research Philatelic Bulletin).
Kupiec-Weglinski’s decades-long philatelic research culminated in publishing in 2021, The History of Airmail in Poland and Its Contribution to Airmail Services of Europe (1914-1939) by The Collectors Club of Chicago. Considered the key reference book in the field, it received The John Kevin Doyle Grand Award at CHICAGOPEX-2021; The George D. Kingdom Literature Award of the American Air Mail Society for the best book (2021); The Diane D. Boehret Award of The American Philatelic Congress for the best philatelic publication (2021); FIP Large Gold at HELVETIA-2022 World Stamp Exhibition; and a Medal for Merit in the Development of Philatelic Publications from The Polish Philatelic Association (2021).
Kupiec-Weglinski is a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society of London and a Member of the American Philatelic Society (since 2004), American Air Mail Society, The Collectors Club of Chicago; The Collectors Club of New York; Polonus Philatelic Society, Cercle Aérophilatélique Français (France); ArGe Polen (Germany); and serves as a Foreign Member of the Polish Academy of Philately (PAF); and a Member, Aerophilately Commission, The Polish Philatelic Association (PZF). He also received the FISA (International Federation of Aerophilatelic Societies) Gold Medal for service to International Aerophilately (Antwerp 2022).
Jerzy lives in Beverly Hills, California, with his visual-artist wife Kasia, a medical-student daughter Sophie-Ann, and Abigail, the dachshund.
For Exceptional Contributions to Philately
Lloyd A. de Vries
Lloyd A. de Vries writes the first day cover column for Linn's Stamp News (since 1997) and before that for Stamps (1986-89) and Stamp Collector (1989-97). For 20 years, de Vries produced a weekly radio feature on stamp collecting for CBS News. He has operated online stamp collecting forums since 1993, which collectively became The Virtual Stamp Club (still extant at http://virtualstampclub.com), and moderates the VSC and American First Day Cover Society Facebook groups, as well as the online Americover page.
De Vries has also written about first day covers and other subjects for First Days, Stamps, Stamp Collector, Global Stamp News, Brookman Times, and the USPS website Beyond the Perf.
Since 2010, de Vries has been president of the AFDCS while also serving in various other posts. He is the president of the APS Writers Unit #30, and a member of many other stamp societies, including the American Philatelic Society (since 1982). He served on the APS Board (1997-2005) as a director-at-large and secretary. He received the Nicholas G. Carter Volunteer Recognition Award (national) in 2009, the AFDCS Distinguished Service Award in 2008, and last year was named a Most Influential Philatelist by Linn's Stamp News.
De Vries has produced Dragon Cards first day cachets since 1983.
Lloyd is married with two sons, two daughters-in-law, and three grandchildren. He plays trombone, bass trombone and euphonium in several community musical ensembles. He retired in 2020 after a 44-year career in journalism (radio, television, internet) with CBS, ABC and others, most of it at the network level. As a freelance radio journalist, his sports coverage included the World Series, Preakness Stakes and even an event at the White House.
For Outstanding Service to the APS
Patricia A. (Trish) Kaufmann
Note: Kauffman will also receive the John Walter Scott Dealer Award and the Charles J. Peterson Philatelic Literature Life Achievement Award (awarded by the APRL).
Patricia A. (Trish) Kaufmann was introduced to Confederate postal history in 1965 and quickly became engrossed in exhibiting, research, and writing on the subject. She is best known as one of the leading experts on stamps and postal history of the Confederate States.
Her leadership in the hobby has included serving as chair of the Board of Vice Presidents of the American Philatelic Society (APS) from 2017-2022. She was scribe for the APS Campaign for Philately 2016-2022, as well as Chair of the APS Dealer Advisory Committee, 2016-2018. She was the first woman to serve on the board of the American Philatelic Research Library (APRL) from 1983-1989, and also a patron. She endowed the APS with the endowing the Kaufmann Civil War Room in 2019 at the American Philatelic Center in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, and is a 2023 APRL Vooys Fellow. She is currently on the board of the Philatelic Foundation, serving since 2021.
She was elected to the Council of Philatelists of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in January 2011, serving unofficially for a year before that. Kaufmann also served as a researcher for their cataloging project, "Arago," which was unveiled May 27, 2006, at the World Philatelic Exhibition. She served during the creation of the William H. Gross Gallery as a founding donor.
Kaufmann has held almost every role in the Civil War Philatelic Society (CWPS), writing and editing extensively for the group’s journal and books, organizing its conventions, and leading its efforts in 2020 to rebrand from the Confederate Stamp Alliance (CSA), broadening its scope, maintaining relevance, and drawing new members. She edited the society journal for a record 17 ½ years from 1970-1987.
She was editor-in-chief of the award-winning Confederate States of America Catalog and Handbook of Stamps and Postal History, published in 2012, which won the Grand Award for Literature at APS StampShow 2013. She is the only woman to serve as president of the Alliance (now CWPS). She was an active member of the Authentication Service from 1996-2014 (18 years), serving as recording secretary from 1996-2007, and now as an emeritus member. She has won nearly all CWPS research, writing, and exhibiting awards, some as many as four times.
As the first employee of John W. Kaufmann, she became a full-time professional philatelist in 1973. She became one of the first women to regularly call philatelic auctions, perhaps the first in the U.S. Among the treasures sold was one of the Inverted Jenny airmail errors (Scott C3a), the first recovered from a block of four stolen in the 1950s from the Ethel B. McCoy collection, sold on behalf of APRL.
In 1989, a year after the untimely death of her husband John in 1988, Kaufmann closed the auction house but continued specialized dealing as a sole proprietor. Her research has led to numerous discoveries in Confederate postal history and stamp varieties. Some of these have upended catalog listings, most notably the 3¢ 1861 Postmasters’ Provisionals, which became a new section in philatelic catalogs. She serves as a consultant to the Scott catalogs.
Kaufmann belongs to numerous philatelic organizations, was inducted into the APS Writers’ Unit Hall of Fame in 2018, and is a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London. She was asked to sign the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists in 2023, a philatelic award of international scale created by the Philatelic Congress of Great Britain in 1921 of which King George V was the first signatory. Also in 2023, it was announced she would be a recipient of the Alfred F. Lichtenstein Memorial Award for Distinguished Service to Philately given by the Collectors Club of New York. She signed the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists of the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society in 2018 and was presented with the Elizabeth Pope Award for Lifetime Contributions to Philately in 2016. She was among those honored by Linn’s Stamp News in 2022 as one of the world’s Most Influential Philatelists.
Kaufmann continues to research and write extensively. Her articles appear regularly in The American Philatelist, American Stamp Collector and Dealer, La Posta, Kelleher’s Stamp Collector’s Quarterly, and the Civil War Philatelist, among others. Her award-winning website trishkaufmann.com is an unrestricted repository for a wide range of information from her research and writing as well as those of others. Her articles and presentations have won frequent awards.
Besides Confederate States, Kaufmann collected and exhibited 19th century Valentines from 1975-1984. She currently collects vintage stamp boxes, as well as studying and adding to her extensive collection of Confederate fakes and fantasies.
Trish is married to Darryl Boyer (whom she declares is “totally lacking the collector gene”), whom she met while scuba diving off the Atlantic coast in 1990. Together, they ran a seasonal wreck-diving charter boat for 15 years while she maintained her stamp business – which she enthusiastically continues online today.
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