Compiled from WESTPEX show programs (2013, 2015–2019). · About this history · ↑ History overview
The 2010s opened with the show’s 50th anniversary — the milestone that produced the book this section is adapted from — and closed on the eve of a global pause. In between, WESTPEX settled deeper into the SF Airport Marriott, ran a steady year-by-year rhythm of themed shows, and watched its longest-serving chairman pass the gavel for the first time since 2002.
The 50th, 2010
The 50th annual show in April 2010 was the milestone WESTPEX – The First 50 Years was written for. The bourse hit 73 dealers and an auctioneer; 25 of them had been with the show for 20 or more years; a quarter of the committee had served at least 13 shows. Kristin Patterson’s 198-page book was launched at the show, with Joseph Clary’s widow Gladys Clary — the only original 1960 volunteer still active — on the committee for her 50th year running.
The 50th-anniversary book itself is the source for everything you’ve been reading on the rest of these pages. The narrative below picks up where the book leaves off.
Continuing the Run, 2011 – 2012
The 51st and 52nd shows continued the format established at the Marriott in 2004. Detailed program data for these two years isn’t collected here; if you have a 2011 or 2012 program, cachet, photograph, or memory you’d like to share for this page, please contact us.
Hetch Hetchy and Panama-Pacific, 2013 – 2015
The 53rd show (April 26–28, 2013) ran under the theme of the 100th Anniversary of the Hetch Hetchy Water Project — the 1913 federal act that allowed San Francisco to dam a Yosemite-grade valley for urban water supply. Bill Dwyer, the show’s long-time idea man, designed the souvenir sheet. Three guest societies headlined: the Germany Philatelic Society, the Society for Czechoslovak Philately, and the International Federation of Aero-Philatelic Societies (FISA). The 75-dealer bourse filled 310-plus frames with 60 competitive exhibits. Chairman Edward Jarvis ran his eleventh show; bourse chair Wayne Menuz ran his eighteenth; jury chair John Hotchner returned. The Schuyler Rumsey four-session auction continued its decade-and-counting Thursday-to-Sunday run.
The 54th show (April 25–27, 2014) hosted the Canal Zone Study Group, the Colombia-Panama Philatelic Study Group, and the Rossica Society of Russian Philately — an unusual three-society lineup with two Latin American partners.
The 55th show (April 24–26, 2015) marked the 100th anniversary of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition — the 1915 world’s fair that announced San Francisco’s recovery from the 1906 earthquake to the world. Guest societies included the American Revenue Association, the State Revenue Society, the Cuban Philatelic Society of America, and the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society. Edwin Andrews stepped in as jury chairman. The bourse held at 75; the show fielded 300-plus frames.
Jack London and the Summer of Love, 2016 – 2017
The 56th show (April 29–May 1, 2016) commemorated the 100th anniversary of the death of Jack London — California’s most-translated author and a fixture in the Bay Area literary canon. Guest societies were the United Postal Stationery Society, the International Society for Portuguese Philately, and the Portuguese Philatelic Society. Darryl Ertzberger took over as jury chairman. The frame count came in at 200-plus — a smaller competitive count, partly explained by the rise of single-frame exhibits in the era.
The 57th show (April 28–30, 2017) took the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love as its theme — San Francisco’s 1967 cultural moment, dropped onto a stamp show program in 2017. Guest societies were the Scandinavian Collectors Club, the International Philippine Philatelic Society, and the Polonus Polish Philatelic Society. Dr. Edwin J. Andrews served as Chief Judge. Seventy-two dealers, 275 frames. It would be Edward Jarvis’s last show as chairman after a record-setting sixteen-year tenure — longer than any of the six chairmen Patterson’s book had profiled.
The Homen Years, 2018 – 2019
The 58th show (April 27–29, 2018) opened with a new chairman: Clyde Homen, who had served as Jarvis’s vice-chairman since the early 2010s, took over the gavel. Daryl Reiber moved up to vice-chairman. The theme was California Declares War on Squirrels 1918 — commemorating the 1918 state war on the California ground squirrel, in which children turned in 104,509 squirrel tails in a single week. Guest societies were Women Exhibitors, the American Air Mail Society, and the Rhodesian Study Circle. Ken P. Martin chaired the jury. Seventy dealers, 274 frames, 4,500 pages of exhibits.
The 59th show (April 26–28, 2019) honored John W. Geary — San Francisco’s first postmaster (appointed 1849), then its final alcalde and first mayor (1850), still the youngest in the city’s history. Geary went on to serve as Territorial Governor of Kansas and as a Civil War general. Guest societies were the United States Stamp Society, the Military Postal History Society, the American Society of Polar Philatelists, the Universal Ship Cancellation Society, and the Ryukyu Philatelic Specialist Society — an unusually long lineup of five. Dr. Peter McCann took over as jury chairman; Gordon Eubanks took over as Bourse Team Lead, ending Bill Dwyer’s long run in that role. Seventy dealers, 274 frames, 4,500 pages.
The decade ended with WESTPEX in steady form: roughly 50 volunteers, a 70-dealer bourse, a 5-day footprint, and the Schuyler Rumsey auction on the second floor. Few in Burlingame that April weekend in 2019 knew the 60th show would not happen on schedule.
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Compiled from WESTPEX show programs (2013, 2015–2019). · About this history →