Person:Eugene Reed (2)

Obituary from American Philatelist June 2000

Eugene (Gene) C. Reed, Jr., one of our great friends in philately, died on February 13, at the age of 80, at his home in Villas, New Jersey. I first met Gene at a BALPEX show. I was aware that he had exhibited the U.S. 1-cent, 1851-61 issue, the issue that became his ultimate specialty, and I had a question about a cover I had seen decorated with a strip of three of these blue beauties. The aisles were full of enthusiastic attendees and bourse activity was bustling, but Gene stopped everything to address my question. he opened his briefcase of photographs of his collection, produced the cover, which he happened to have purchased at the sale where I had seen it, and gave me a full description. This was typical of Gene, and it was always this way. He loved to discuss the nauces of this issue and their applications, and he attempted to increase our knowledge with new examples supportive of existing concepts and through new discoveries and considerations of his own. Gene first became interested in philately in the 1950s when he began nurturing an interest in postal history. he became a board member of the New Jersey Postal History Society, and was an active supporter of NOJEX. He was elected the first president of the New York chapter of the U. S. Philatelic Classics Society in the 1970s and served in this capacity for five years; he also served as chairman of its Grievance Committee. He was active on the APS Expertizing Committee and was an accredited philatelic judge. His article, "U.S. Postal Arrangements with Britain and France Prior to 1875" (SPA Journal, vol. 41; part 1, pp. 669-82, and part 2, pp. 739-51), and his exhibit, "United States Early Classics On and Off Cover," best relate his study of classic U. S. Postal history. The American Philatelic Congress presented Gene with the Dorothy Colby Memorial Award for this article in 1980. The related exhibit won three international gold medals (Copenhagen, 1976; Sofiya, 1979, London, 1980). While still expanding his early classics collection, Gene changed his emphasis to a study of the 1-cent, 1851-61 issue, starting with select items from his classics collection. The result was a masterful exhibit which received a large gold at WESTPEX 83 and a gold at AMERIPEX 86. Gene published several articles in different philatelic journals. Much of his interest was in the reduction i size of the stamp design for profitable production, conformance with the limitations of the transfer press, and allowance for perforations. His considerations of the design size for the 1851-61 Franklin issue led toa question about the size of the Franklin carrier, LO1. This, in turn, led to his discovery that the layout dots for the LO1s are located in the lower-left corner of the stamp. Accordingly, Gene offered the hypothesis that this carrie was entered in a different order than all the 1851-61 regular issue plates created with a three-relief transfer roll. New discoveries, increased understanding, generation of interest -- it was vintage Gene, and his presence will surely be missed. --Gerald L. Moss

Social Security Number is 155-14-3801. In 2000, his address was 2711 Weaver Ave. Villas, Cape May, New Jersey 08251.

1. ↑ Registrar of Vital Statistics, Township of Lower, Cape May, New Jersey, USA. Certificate of Death, Cape May, New Jersey, USA
   13-2-2000.
2. ↑ Registrar of Vital Statistics, Township of Lower, Cape May, New Jersey, USA. Certificate of Death, Cape May, New Jersey, USA.
3. ↑ United States of America. Family Search United States Social Security Death Index. (online database: http://www.familysearch.org).
4. ↑ Registrar of Vital Statistics, Township of Lower, Cape May, New Jersey, USA. Certificate of Death, Cape May, New Jersey, USA
   13 Feb 2000.