Compiled from WESTPEX show programs (2022–2025). · About this history · ↑ History overview
The 2020s opened with a global pause — and with the show finding its way back. Two new chairmen handed off across a single decade for the first time in WESTPEX’s history, the bourse rebuilt, and the show’s themes leaned harder into local San Francisco history while the program reached out to host an international showcase.
The Pandemic Years, 2020 – 2021
The 60th and 61st shows fell across the COVID-19 pandemic. The April 2020 show was reshaped by the global shutdown that started weeks before opening day; the 2021 show was rescheduled into the summer. Detailed program data for these two years isn’t collected here. If you attended either show or have a 2020 or 2021 program, cachet, or memory you’d like to share, please contact us.
Coming Back, 2022
The 62nd show (April 22–24, 2022) marked the show’s return to its traditional April slot at the SF Airport Marriott. The theme was the 85th Anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge. Chairman Daryl Reiber, who had been vice-chairman through the 2018 – 2019 Homen years, took over the gavel; Behruz Nassre-Esfahani stepped up as vice-chairman. Sixty-two dealers worked the bourse — smaller than the pre-pandemic 70-plus — and 4,000 pages of exhibits filled the floor across 260 frames. Guest societies were the United Postal Stationery Society, the Western Cover Society, and the Hawaiian Philatelic Society. Dr. Peter McCann returned as jury chair.
The 2022 program’s “In Remembrance” section honored two long-time WESTPEX figures: William “Bill” Barlow, who had served as treasurer through 2017 and passed October 21, 2021; and Stanley Piller, the Bay Area dealer at WESTPEX since 1982 who never missed a show.
The Cable Car and a Change in Leadership, 2023
The 63rd show (April 28–30, 2023) ran under the theme of the 150th Anniversary of the Cable Car — San Francisco’s most-photographed transit system, in operation since 1873.
2023 also marked a chairmanship transition: Behruz Nassre-Esfahani took over as Chairman of the Board, becoming the eighth person to hold the role since 1960. Kurt Schau took over as Bourse Team Lead. The new program team grew the bourse to 65 dealers; 4,200 pages of exhibits filled 266 frames; 50 competitive exhibits competed for the Grand Award. Guest societies were the United States Philatelic Classics Society, the Polonus Polish Philatelic Society, and the Scandinavian Collectors Club. Darrell Ertzberger served as Chief Judge.
The 2023 In Remembrance section honored Sergio Sismondo, an esteemed postal historian and dealer at WESTPEX since 1984 who had handled some of the world’s greatest rarities (including the unique Sweden 1855 Treskilling Yellow). The program also marked the retirement of Jim Dempsey of A&D Stamps & Coins after his last show.
An International Showcase, 2024
The 64th show (April 26–28, 2024) made a leap onto the international stage. The theme was the Sesquicentennial of the Universal Postal Union — the 1874-founded international body that coordinates postal mail across borders. WESTPEX was selected as the UPU’s North American showcase for its 19th competition, displaying philatelic exhibits from 28 countries on the show floor — the first time WESTPEX had hosted an international competition of this scale.
Chairman Nassre-Esfahani ran his second show. The bourse held at 65 dealers; 4,300 pages of exhibits filled 276 frames; 50 competed for the Grand Award. Guest societies were the Royal Philatelic Society London, the United States Possessions Philatelic Society, the Colombia-Panama Philatelic Study Group, and the Canal Zone Study Group. Dr. Peter McCann returned as jury chairman, with apprentice judge Andrew Kelley training under him.
The 2024 In Memoriam section honored two long-serving committee members who had passed in late 2023: Jim Woodfill, who had spent decades preparing the show’s annual cachets — planning the stamps, designing the cancels, and helping his children carefully apply each one as his health declined — and Dr. Frank Edward Vignola, a Nepal specialist whose research had grown from his father Frank J. Vignola’s earlier work and who had co-authored the latest catalog of classic Nepalese stamps.
The 65th, 2025
The 65th show (April 25–27, 2025) marked the 175th anniversary of California statehood. The bourse welcomed 65 dealers; 4,300 pages of exhibits filled 256 frames in open competition. Guest societies were the American Helvetia Philatelic Society, the Rossica Society of Russian Philately, the Mexico-Elmhurst Philatelic Society International, and the Rhodesian Study Circle. Mark Banchik chaired the jury.
Bourse Team co-leadership passed to Tom Kinberg with the chairman, after Kurt Schau’s passing in January 2025. The 2025 In Remembrance section honored four committee members and dealers: Roy Coelho Teixeira, the Azores-born volunteer who had run the Friends of the Western Philatelic Library; Randy Tuuri, whose final exhibit on Estonian Post Rates 1918–1921 won a Large Vermeil and a Rossica Best Russian Exhibit award shortly before his death; Kurt Schau, the co-founder of Harmer-Schau Auction Galleries who had taken over Bourse Team Lead in 2023; and Jim Dempsey of A&D Stamps & Coins, who had been a fixture of the show through his retirement in 2023.
Looking Ahead
The 66th show is scheduled for April 24–26, 2026, with guest societies the Collectors Club of San Francisco, the Collectors Club of New York, the Hawaiian Philatelic Society, and the Western Cover Society. The 67th (2027) and 68th (2028) shows are already on the calendar.
The Schuyler Rumsey four-session auction continues every show; the bourse runs roughly 65 dealers; the youth program runs in the Santa Clara Room; the Boy Scout Stamp Collecting Merit Badge Workshop continues every Sunday of the show. The format Patterson described in 2010 remains, more or less, the format running today.
Compiled from WESTPEX show programs (2022–2025). · About this history →