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Nicholas G. Carter (1936–2008)
and the American Philatelic Society
Only one other American Philatelic Society president has died
in office: John Walter Scott (of Scott Catalogue fame) on January
4, 1919. There was
no headquarters then, and Joseph B. Leavy of Washington edited
The American Philatelist (he served as the national philatelist
at the Smithsonian). Philip M. Wolsieffer, a stamp dealer from
Philadelphia, headed the Sales Division, and committees ran the
other services (Expert Service, Recruiting, Handbooks, etc.).
The APS was a very different Society almost ninety years ago!
While
the news of Nick’s passing has been widely covered
in the philatelic press and talked about within the stamp collecting
community, I felt it appropriate to dedicate my first column
to his memory, and to the visions and goals he had for our Society.
 Above
all, Nick was a consummate gentleman. People were his life’s
joy. Always approachable and ever smiling, a finer person would
be hard to find. I knew Nick casually until I joined the APS
board of directors in 2005, when he was serving his second term
as treasurer. I was taken with his quick grasp of our finances
and his positive attitude about all things. The APS was in good
stead with his arm on the financial tiller.
When Michael Dixon,
president of the Washington 2006 committee allowed me to participate
in their last four executive committee meetings before the actual
exhibition, I was exposed to Nick’s
informed manner of all things financial, dealing with the daunting
task of the daily accounting for this humongous endeavor. He
handled everything calmly and was spot-on. Washington 2006 was
a smashing success, both financially and for the stamp-collecting
world.
In second half of 2006, Nick decided to run for
president of the APS in the 2007 election, and was elected with
nearly 75 percent of the vote; a mandate from the membership
in no uncertain terms. However, Nick’s illness robbed him of the completion
of his dreams for the APS. His goals for the Society were:
- To spread the joy of stamp collecting.
- To re-establish a
financially sound APS.
- To focus APS services to benefit our
geographically diverse membership.
- To position the APS on the
cutting edge of technology to make philatelic information easily
accessible.
- To complete the American Philatelic Center in as
economical a fashion as possible.
Nick astutely condensed into a few sentences,
an all-encompassing directive for the APS. Comprised of time-tested
logic and forward-looking concepts, we have before us a plan
of action for our Society. You might ask, “Where is membership
growth addressed?” We
have to proactively work on stabilizing and growing our membership,
but the notion is that if we can speak to and accomplish the
above issues, the membership will grow naturally, as collectors
would want to be part of such an organization and to avail themselves
of its benefits. Sort of like the truism, “If you build
a better mousetrap, people will beat a path to your door.”
We
inherit Nick’s bullet points as part of his legacy to
this Society. He wanted so much to see them through. The plan
is simple, its execution difficult. It will take a lot of effort,
hard work, and money.
Hey, no one said it was going to be easy,
and great achievements never are accomplished without sweat and
toil! With this blueprint, we have an agenda of what needs to
be done. We have made headway on some of the points — such
as the new website development and putting the APS on a more
sound financial footing — but
there is much yet to do. For one, discussion is needed on how
to proceed with the remaining undeveloped buildings at the American
Philatelic Center. Over the next several months, your board of
directors will re-address all these issues to make sure we are
on track and to make any course adjustments necessary.
Thanksgiving
is around the corner, here in these United States, and that always
signals the oncoming end of our autumn season; time to snuggle
up with your favorite album of stamps or covers and plan for
the holiday season and prepare for winter’s
hibernation. It’s also a time we traditionally spend with
family and friends. Why not show your favorite stamps or covers
to them when you get together and see if you can engage their
interest? How about stamp-collecting holiday gifts for them?
A year set of stamps or first day covers can go a long way to
imbue them with the collecting bug. It’s just my thought,
a first step, in what a good friend suggested we do, “Spread
the joy of stamp collecting.” |
