Author: Pat Morgan
Prexie Award Winner: 2022

Did you Know? (July 2025)

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One theory as to the origin of the tête-bêche varieties of the Ceres heads of France comes from deliberately replacing a damaged cliché with an inverted one. The head of stamp printing could then, at a glance, tell where the plate had been repaired. These varieties are highly sought after by collectors.

APS Awards and Honors: The Kehr Award

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2025 – Alex Haimann

A stamp collector since the age of 7 and an APS member since the age of 10, Alex Haimann has never met a stamp or cover he didn’t like. His passion for philately came from the encouragement and support of the West Suburban Stamp Club in Plymouth, Michigan. This extremely positive welcome to the hobby has inspired Alex to seek out collectors in the younger generations and make them feel welcome, along with helping them connect with others.

In January 2008, during his Tiffany Dinner speech, Alex presented the original proposal for what would become the American Philatelic Society’s Young Philatelic Leaders Fellowship program, now in its 15th year. Between 2005 and 2010, Alex worked for the Smithsonian National Postal Museum as a collections specialist and web projects developer. In a volunteer capacity, Alex served the APS as the chair of the Board of Vice Presidents (2013-2016) and as the chair of the Campaign for Philately Committee (2016-2022). Alex also served on the World Stamp Show–NY 2016 and the Stockholmia 2019 committees.

Since 2008, Alex has given dozens of talks in person and online across the U.S. to philatelic and non-philatelic audiences. Continuing a passion to bring philately and postal history to new audiences, Haimann exhibited his Anglo-Zulu War collection during a summer exhibition (“Clash of Empires: The 1879 Anglo-Zulu War”) (www.clashofempires.org), at the Royal Philatelic Society London in 2023 with more than 2,000 people from 29 countries attending. Since the exhibition, videos created around the content of the exhibition have generated more than 1 million views on YouTube. Alex currently serves as an ex officio member of the society’s council (board of trustees). 

In 2025, Alex began writing a regular column for The American Philatelist, “On Location,” where he chronicles a personal challenge to visit and present to a stamp club in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. He is on course to check eight states and two additional countries off the list before the end of 2025. 

Alex is very proud to have sponsored 772 new APS members to date, the second most of any living APS member, behind Don Sundman.

Professionally, Alex is the executive vice president of Cherrystone Auctions. In this role, he focuses on a range of marketing and consignor relations initiatives alongside preparing philatelic material for auction. In his non-philatelic life, Alex is married to his saint-like wife, Sarah, and they live with his three children, Karinne (age 9), Winston (6) and Georgie (3) in St. Louis, Missouri. Earlier this year, Karinne and Winston became APS members. Alex’s family will join him this year at GASS.

The Ernest A. Kehr Award is presented annually by the APS “for enduring contributions that help guarantee the future of the hobby.”

The award is named for Life Member Ernest A. Kehr. Established in 1991, the Kehr Award recognizes one living philatelist each year who, for a period of at least five years, has demonstrated one or more of the following:

  • Making philately attractive as a hobby to newcomers.
  • Working directly with newcomers, especially young people.
  • Developing and administering programs aimed at recruiting newcomers.

Source: APS Awards and Honors: The Kehr Award

Robert V. “Bob” Ogrodnik (1938-2025)

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Robert V. “Bob” Ogrodnik, 87, passed away peacefully on May 11, 2025.

Bob joined the Greater Mound City Stamp Club on April 1, 1996, member #331.

Robert is survived by his devoted wife of 60 years, Carol (Morin), daughters Karla Boresi, Erika (Oscar) Yepes, and Tanya (Michael) Haber, six grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. He was preceded in death by his parents, Stella (Rekas) and Joseph Ogrodnik, and sisters Jeanne (Martin) Hartigan and Dolores (Terry) Bower.

A graduate of La Salle Academy and the University of Rhode Island, Bob had a 40-year career with Emerson Electric, where he served as the president of several manufacturing divisions, and the extensive work he did evaluating international acquisitions and partnerships allowed him to fulfill his childhood dreams of traveling the world.

One of the greatest honors of Bob’s life was serving 15 years as the Honorary Counsel for the Republic of Poland in Missouri. His accomplishments included establishing the first consulate in St. Louis since 1920, assisting Polish citizens to exercise their right to vote in Polish elections and to renew their passports, and acting as a liaison with the Polish government.

A passionate philatelist from the age of 7, Bob’s extensive collections focused on stamps from Poland and the Vatican. He also collected United States stamps as a side collection. He served as President of the Polonus Polish Philatelic Society from 1995-2002, and was proud of his gold-medal winning exhibit “First Polish Airmail after WWII.”

Organizations such as the Lupus Foundation, National Kidney Foundation and the Bach Society benefited greatly from Bob’s time and talents. Bob enjoyed tennis, golf, and travel.

David Owen Semsrott (1943-2025)

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David was a former member of the Mound City Stamp Club and a fixture in the Philatelic community along with his late father for decades,

Beloved husband of Cheryl Semsrott (nee Tabers) for 56 years; loving father of Rebecca, Danielle (Jason) and David; adoring grandfather of Evelyn and Lillian Shook, Matthew Welter and the late Michael Welter; dear son of the late Wiiliam and Ruth Semsrott; dear brother of William (the late Donna) Semsrott. Our dearest uncle, great-uncle, cousin and friend to many.

David was a lifelong resident of St. Louis County, after a long career at Henkel Corporation, and upon his retirement he turned his longtime hobby of stamp collecting into a business. He opened in 2009 and operated The David Semsrott Stamp Shop in Kirkwood, Mo.