Two of our members, Roger Brody (#11814) and Gene Fricks (#12065), received the highest recognition accorded by the American Philatelic Society to living philatelists at the 2007 Stampshow in Portland. Steve Schumann also received a Luff Award, rounding out the three awards presented at every year’s StampShow.

Roger S. Brody (Watchung, New Jersey) received the Luff Award for Distinguished Philatelic Research. Effective research involves publishing its results and Brody’s activity as researcher, collector, exhibitor, and author have ensured that his findings could be shared by others.

Roger is well known as a specialist in early 20th century U.S. stamps. His interest in the United States 1902 Second Bureau issue introduced him to exhibiting and to the research that inevitably is necessary to understand the complexities of that issue. Ultimately, his efforts with the Series 1902 exhibit achieved national grand and international gold medals as well as the United States Stamp Society 1996 Walter W. Hopkinson Memorial Trophy.

As is true of all good researchers, Roger is an active author. He has published numerous articles on stamps and postal history in The United States Specialist, The Collectors Club Philatelist, Linn’s Stamp News, Perfins Bulletin, The Vermont Philatelist, LaPosta, and Stamps magazine, and is a contributing advisor to the Scott Catalogue. Twice he earned the annual USSS Hopkinson Memorial Literature Award for the best research article in The United States Specialist. Among the various subjects treated have been Essays and Line Drawings, a series on the Washington Shield stamp, three census reports on the 1902 issue, the 8-cent Martha Washington, and pneumatic tube mail. His collaboration in preparing the auction catalogue of his 1902 collection for the sale by Shreves Philatelic Galleries has led to what is now considered to be a definitive study of the issue.

Roger is currently USSS Chairman of the Board of Governors and the chairman of the Research Committee of the Smithsonian Institution’s Council of Philatelists. In that role, he coordinates the efforts of a dozen noted philatelists/researchers and seven of the staff members of the National Postal Museum in a wide array of research projects.

As a lecturer he has presented his findings on several aspects of the U.S. Series 1902, and on stamp development and production at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing at locations as far afield as the Royal Philatelic Society London. Closer to home, he was the speaker for the 2005 Maynard Sundman lecture series at the National Postal Museum.

Roger is active in organized philately as well. He is an elected governor, past treasurer, and currently serves as vice president of The Collectors Club (New York). His ongoing efforts as financial advisor of the Collectors Club have ensured the financial health of the Club. He is board chairman of the United States Stamp Society and past chairman of the 1902 Series committee. Since 2003, Roger has served on the Smithsonian National Postal Museum Council of Philatelists, and recently was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the American Philatelic Research Library. Other affiliations include the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society, New York Chapter; serving as a treasurer for the Westfield (NJ) Stamp Club; as well as several specialized societies. He is a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London.

E. Eugene (”Gene”) Fricks (Blackwood, New Jersey) received the Luff Award for Outstanding Service to the American Philatelic Society. Gene’s service to the APS has been long and varied. He served as vice president with past presidents Bud Sellers and the late David Lidman. He assisted in formulating the APS Code of Ethics. Gene has served on the APS Experts Committee, offering expertise in a number of areas not covered by others, rather than duplicating fields already addressed by other experts. He was accredited by the APS as both an international and a national judge. He currently serves as a board member of the APS Writer’s Unit #30.

Among his many contributions, one main effort Gene has provided is ongoing service to the APS and APRL. For more than a decade he has continued to assemble much of the searchable philatelic article database on the APRL website “PHLNDX” (an abbreviated search tool is found under the Article Index on the website) that includes 215,000 entries to date. He is the current project leader of this ambitious undertaking, which will be of great use to any researcher or writer who would like to find reference to earlier publications on a given subject.

PHLNDX includes more than a thousand journal titles, beginning with the Philatelic Record in the early 1860s. Fricks personally inspects virtually all articles and reviews published or transliterated into Latin alphabets. Articles in languages other than English, if printed in journals held in the APRL or the Collectors Club library (or obtained by subscriptions paid for by Fricks), also are included. Articles, reviews, biographies and major philatelic organizational items in major magazines and numerous study group publications are included, except for modern “new issues.”

Gene’s effort is to read or skim each article to determine its content and then to type the entry into the database, also assigning classification topics. For some articles, multiple entries may be necessary where multiple subjects are treated.

Gene’s other talents include writing and editing. He served for sixteen years as the editor of The Collectors Club Philatelist and currently is on its Editorial Board. He was formerly the editor of the house publication for the International Society of Indonesians Specialists and was the founding editor for New Jersey Postal History, the publication of the New Jersey Postal History Society. He is a columnist for The Informer (Society of Australasian Specialists) and has written many articles, including some for the Congress Book.

His memberships show the wide scope of his collecting interests: Germany Philatelic Society (more than 30 years); France & Colonies Philatelic Society (both U.S. and U.K.) and liaison to the Scott Catalogue; American Society of Netherlands Philately; L’Union Marcophile (France); American Revenue Society; State Revenue Society; United Postal Stationery Society; American Topical Association; Masonic Study Unit of the ATA (president); and the Western Africa Study Circle (U.K.). Gene is a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London and had served many years as governor of the Collectors Club (New York).