Ken Pruess Remembered – Part Five

1940s Grant County, Minnesota Pheasant

In todays conclusion to the series remembering Ken Pruess, we shall finish our overview of Ken’s fabulous fish and game collection. As a preface, I wish to discuss an interest Ken and I shared – philatelic exhibiting – in a little more depth. While a scholar and professor, Ken was also a dedicated and prolific exhibitor. He relied on his exhibits to share his…

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Ken Pruess Remembered – Part Four

Starting today, we will take a look at highlights from the Ken Pruess collection. Ken was the last of the great pioneer fish and game collectors. What separated Ken from his peers, however, is that he was very involved in all aspects of organized philately. While Morton Dean Joyce, Joseph Janousek, Mrs Robert Powell and Les Lebo…

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Ken Pruess Remembered – Part Three

In today’s post we will continue to look at Ken’s contributions to the hobby of collecting state revenue stamps in general and fish and game stamps in particular. During the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, Ken was a prolific writer and speaker. He wrote articles for the State Revenue Newsletter, The American Revenuer and published…

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Ken Pruess Remembered – Part Two

Today we will look at Ken Pruess’ involvement with the the State Revenue Society, The State Revenue Newsletter and E.L. Vanderford’s Handbook of Fish and Game Stamps. Through Ken’s selfless giving of his valuable time (he was a professor at The University of Nebraska at Lincoln for much of this period), Ken helped shape the future of revenue…

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Ken Pruess Remembered – Part One

It is with a heavy heart that I report the passing of a friend and fellow collector, Ken Pruess, on Sunday, December 11, 2016. Ken was a long time revenue stamp collector, author, exhibitor and APS accredited judge. With regard to fish and game stamps, I would like to say that he was one of…

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The Boward Family Find – Part Three

In the conclusion to our story about the Boward Family Find, we will see the rest of the early Maryland trout and big game stamps that first Eugene and then his son, Gary, kept safely stored in a suitcase for over 50 years. Eugene B. Boward was what we call a closet collector. While he no doubt…

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The Boward Family Find – Part Two

In today’s post, we shall continue our story about Eugene B. Boward and his Maryland fish and game stamps. Growing up, Eugene was an avid sportsman and spent much of his time hunting, fishing and trapping. Soon after the outbreak of WWII, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corp and eventually found himself in Italy,…

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The Boward Family Find – Part One

Today we will take a look at one of the more remarkable fish and game stamp finds in recent years. Just over a month ago, I was contacted by Gary Boward of Virginia. He informed me that his father had passed away and while he and his wife, Jill, were going through his father’s possessions, they…

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Walter A. Weber: Winner of the First Federal Duck Stamp Contest – Part Three

We continue our story about Walter Weber by first taking a look at two of the paintings he had published in The National Geographic Magazine, in 1949 and 1950 – around the same time he painted his winning federal duck stamp entry. It is for this exquisite wildlife art that Walter is, perhaps, best remembered. Then, it will be necessary to amend some of what we…

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