Adapted from WESTPEX – The First 50 Years by Kristin Patterson, © 2010 WESTPEX, Inc. · About this history · ↑ History overview
The first fifty years of WESTPEX rest on the shoulders of 223 volunteers, the work of 222 different jurors, and the talent of dozens of Grand Award – winning exhibitors. This page is a partial record. The full lists from WESTPEX – The First 50 Years appendices A, B, and C are reproduced below in summary form — the most-served volunteers and jurors, and every Grand Award winner from 1960 through 2009.
Top Volunteers
The shows from 1960 to 2010 — with a hiatus in 1997 for Pacific ’97 — averaged about 40 volunteers each. Each volunteer assisted in an average of nine shows; the 2010 committee averaged 13 shows per member. The ten most-served volunteers (deceased volunteers marked *):
| Volunteer | Shows | Board roles |
|---|---|---|
| Gladys R. Clary | 50 | |
| Richard H. Salz | 42 | |
| Frank J. Vignola* | 39 | Treasurer (1), Director |
| Joseph M. Clary* | 37 | Chairman (11), Vice-Chairman (19) |
| William J. Oliver | 37 | Chairman (10), Vice-Chairman (8) |
| Roger D. Skinner | 36 | Director |
| Mae Vignola* | 35 | |
| Garvin F. Lohman | 34 | Director |
| Josephine B. Skinner | 33 | Corp. Secretary (4), Treasurer (7), Director |
| Cyrus R. Thompson* | 33 | Chairman (12), Vice-Chairman (17) |
Joseph Clary’s widow Gladys Clary tops the list at 50 shows — every WESTPEX from 1960 to 2010, the only original volunteer still active in 2010, and at age 95 still volunteering. The full Appendix A list of 223 names is in the printed book.
Grand Award Winners, 1960 – 2009
WESTPEX has been an APS World Series of Philately show since 1969 — meaning every Grand Award winner since then has been eligible for the APS Champion of Champions competition at the next StampShow. Four WESTPEX Grand Award exhibits have gone on to take that title — tying WESTPEX with ARIPEX and ChicagoPex for most COC winners — and WESTPEX is the only show to have produced back-to-back COC winners (1982 and 1983).
Three Grand Award winners were also WESTPEX volunteers at the time of their wins: Bonnie Eacret in 1970, Joseph Schwartz in 1992, and Donald Green in 2000. John Birkinbine II, the longest-serving WESTPEX dealer, won in 1993. APS Champion of Champions winners are marked ★.
| Year | Exhibit | Exhibitor |
|---|---|---|
| 1960 | Canada: Imperial Penny Postage Issue 1898 | Reverend John S. Bain |
| 1961 | Use and Development of Envelopes Following the Penny Black Postage of 1840 | Wallace W. Knox |
| 1962 | Territorial History of Colorado | N. Leonard Persson |
| 1963 | Selected Pages – Early U.S. Mail. Carriers and Local | Leon Hyzen |
| 1964 | Canada: The Issue of 1911 – 25 | Daniel G. Rosenblat |
| 1965 | Hawaii – A Specialized Stamp and Postal History | Harold E. Levitt |
| 1966 | Bosnia-Herzegovina During the Turkish Occupation | William E. Waste |
| 1967 | 3¢ 1851 – 1860, Stamps and Covers | Dr. Gerald B. Smith |
| 1968 | Germany Issues of 1889 – 1900 — Specialized | George Kunzmann |
| 1969 ★ | U.S. 1869 Issues | Margaret L. Wunsch |
| 1970 | The Provisional Stamps of Canada – A Postal History | Bonnie G. Eacret (WESTPEX volunteer) |
| 1971 | Leeward Islands, Queen Victoria Issues 1890 – 1902 | Stanley C. Durnin |
| 1972 | Specialized Collection of U.S. Carrier & Local Posts | Leon Hyzen |
| 1973 | Portugal: A Study of the Embossed Stamps of 1853 / 80 | Thomas B. Quinn |
| 1974 | 1861 – 67: A Collection of Covers | Louis Grunin |
| 1975 | One Cent Issue of 1861 | C.W. “Bert” Christian |
| 1976 | Classical Chinese Stamps of the 19th Century | Joseph Kim-che Wong |
| 1977 | Gateway to the West | David T. Beals III |
| 1978 ★ | United States One Cent Stamp 1851 – 61 | Ryohei Ishikawa |
| 1979 | Imperial China: Postal History and Postal Markings | Robert T.Y. Lee |
| 1980 | German Military Posts – Air Mail and Parcel Permit Stamps, 1942 – 1945 | James E. Duffy |
| 1981 | A Study of the U.S. 1847 Issue | Duane B. Garrett |
| 1982 ★ | The Black Jacks | Dr. Joseph F. Rorke |
| 1983 ★ | Postal History of Louisiana | Harvey Warm |
| 1984 | Imperial Eagles of Mexico, 1864 – 1866 | Quintus Fernando |
| 1985 | Norway 1855 – 1875 | Vi King |
| 1986 | Imperial China, 1863 – 1911 | Carl A. Kilgas |
| 1987 | Penny Post Will Deliver | Robert B. Meyersburg |
| 1988 | Forerunner Posts of the Holy Land 1418 – 1918 | Dr. Jerome L. Byers |
| 1989 | Stamp Separation from 1840 to Modern Times | John M. Hotchner |
| 1990 | The New York Postmasters Provisional | Dr. Leonard Kapiloff |
| 1991 | The Evolution and Use of Adhesives for Postage Due | James P. Gough |
| 1992 | Palestine 1917 – 1948 | Joseph D. Schwartz (WESTPEX volunteer) |
| 1993 | Pioneer Arizona Classics | John Birkinbine II (WESTPEX dealer since 1965) |
| 1994 | The American Intervention in Russia | Alfred F. Kugel |
| 1995 | Postal Stationery of the Ottoman Empire | M. Yavuz Corapcioglu |
| 1996 | Ireland: Postal History: 1851 through the 1890s | Patricia Stilwell-Walker |
| 1997 — no show (Pacific ’97) | ||
| 1998 | Early Ceylon: Prestamp Markings Imperforate and Perforated Pence Issues | Quintus Fernando |
| 1999 | Prephilatelic and Classic Ecuador Including Maritime Mail | Robert A. D’Elia |
| 2000 | “Patent Medicine” Companies of the Civil War and Reconstruction Era | Donald E. Green (WESTPEX volunteer) |
| 2001 | United States Independent Mails, 1844 – 45 | Carmen A. Puliafito, MD |
| 2002 ★ | Western Australia | Arthur K.M. Woo |
| 2003 | Boyd’s Local Post – New York City: 1844 – 1911 | Martin Richardson |
| 2004 | Eagles and Maximillians: Imperial Issues 1864 – 1867 | Omar Rodriguez |
| 2005 | Samoa 1836 – 1900 | Jan Berg |
| 2006 | “From Hill To Bickerdike” … The Victorian-era Experimental Machine Postmarks of England, 1857 – 1901 | Jerry H. Miller |
| 2007 | U.S. Departmentals, 1873 – 1884 | Lester C. Lanphear III |
| 2008 | Baltimore Postal History from Colonial Times until the UPU | Patricia Stilwell-Walker |
| 2009 | Mails Carried by Water within the USA (1814 – 1875) | Hugh V. Feldman |
★ = WESTPEX Grand Award winner who went on to win the APS Champion of Champions.
Top Jurors
Across fifty years, 222 different people served on WESTPEX juries, with many serving multiple times — for a total of 441 juror appointments. The largest jury was 20 in 1968 (16 regular + 4 apprentices); the smallest was five (in 2003 and 2006). The most-served jurors:
| Juror | Shows | Location |
|---|---|---|
| William H. Condon | 11 | Mountain View, CA |
| Basil C. Pearce | 11 | Oakland, CA |
| Joseph D. Schwartz | 10 | Sacramento, CA |
| Walton Eugene Tinsley | 9 | Los Angeles, CA |
| William C. Aichele | 8 | Hollister, CA |
| Donald A. Dretzke | 8 | San Francisco, CA |
| Milton J. Richter | 8 | San Mateo, CA |
| Fred E. Starr | 8 | Carmel Valley, CA |
| Frank Vignola | 8 | San Francisco, CA |
| Calvin W. “Bert” Christian | 7 | Los Angeles, CA |
| John H. Willard | 7 | Denver, CO |
| William W. Wylie | 7 | Albany, OR |
Walton Eugene Tinsley — the Los Angeles attorney who in 1962 secured the federal trademark on the WESTPEX name — served on nine WESTPEX juries between 1961 and 1984 (twice as jury chairman). The full Appendix C list of all 222 jurors is in the printed book.
The Years Since 2010
WESTPEX has continued every year since the book’s 50th-anniversary edition closed, with brief disruptions across 2020 and 2021 from the COVID-19 pandemic. Annual Grand Award winners and the post-2009 jury and volunteer lists are published in each year’s show program; the consolidated tables above are not currently extended past 2009 on this page.
If you have a complete list of post-2010 Grand Award winners, jurors, or long-serving volunteers you’d like to see incorporated, please contact us.
The complete Appendix A (Volunteers), Appendix B (Grand Award Exhibits), and Appendix C (Jury List) are in WESTPEX – The First 50 Years. This page summarizes the most-served volunteers and jurors and reproduces the full Grand Award list.
Adapted from WESTPEX – The First 50 Years by Kristin Patterson, © 2010 WESTPEX, Inc. · About this history →