John S. Meek Named as Recipient of 2001 Hopkinson Memorial Award

John S. Meek of Boulder, Colorado, has been named as the recipient of the 2001 Walter W. Hopkinson Memorial Award, given annually to the author of the best article or series of articles published in The United States Specialist, the monthly journal of the United States Stamp Society.

Meek, a long-time member of the Society, a prolific contributor to The Specialist and Chairman of the Society's Marginal Markings Committee, had four articles in the Society's journal during 2001, all of which were considered together by the award committee.  Each of the articles dealt with a different aspect of "selvage" of United States postal issues, from press markings used in the early twentieth century, to digitized bar codes on our more recent stamps.

Meek's first article for 2001 appeared in the May, 2001, issue of The United States Specialist and was titled, "Bar Codes and USPS Item Numbers." His second article was printed in the September issue. Called "Feed Lines," it discussed markings placed upon the plates of flat plate printed stamps to assist in the placement and centering of the sheet of paper.  In November, Meek's article titled, "Feed Holes and the End of Flat Plate Printing," dealt with holes that were drilled into the side margins of the sheet of paper for placement over pins to assist in registration during printing.  Meek's final article for 2001 appeared in the December issue of The Specialist.  Titled "Inversion Control Markings on Giori Press Stamps," it described and illustrated some of the markings found in the margins of Giori press products to prevent the issuance of stamps with inverted vignettes.

John S. Meek now joins a small but illustrious group of three-time winners of the Hopkinson Memorial Award, consisting of George W. Brett, the Society's Chairman Emeritus, and Larry Weiss.  Meek won his first Hopkinson Award in 1978, for a series of articles about siderographers' and plate finishers' initials that appear in the margins of many early 20th century stamps, and his second award came in 1993 for an article about the 1898 Tax Act.

In accordance with the Society's practice, the selection committee for 2001 consisted of three most recent available winners of the Hopkinson Award: Larry S. Weiss, who received the award for 2000 for a two-part article entitled, "Detecting Watermarks"; Roger S. Brody, who won the award in 1999 for an article entitled "Y1.9K - Handling the Mails at the Turn of the Century"; and James H. Patterson, who was awarded the trophy in 1998 for his article, "Small Die Proofs of the Twentieth Century's Second Quarter."

The award was established in 1953 in honor of Walter W. Hopkinson, by his wife, Mrs. Constance B. Hopkinson, in view of Hopkinson's interest in philatelic scholarship and the dissemination of research and knowledge through the Society's publications.  Hopkinson was a plate number specialist as well as a vigorous supporter and long-time member of the Bureau Issues Association, as the Society was then known.  The first award was given in 1954, and it has been presented annually thereafter.  The award consists of an engraved plaque with the Society's seal, and an honorarium.