Most organized activities have their Halls of Fame, patterned after Cooperstown, baseball’s Hall of Fame. The American Philatelic Society, which has been the largest stamp collecting organization in the United States for over one hundred years, serves as the historical repository of philately in this country. The American Philatelic Research library is the largest useable philatelic library in the country and the APS not only offers valuable services to its members, but by studying what the APS has done and who they have honored, stamp collectors can get a pretty good idea about what and who were important in our hobby through the generations that stamps have been saved.
The APS created its Hall of Fame in 1941 and the “founding class” represented the twelve philatelists deemed by that generation to have the most formulative role on our hobby. The list and the biographies are well worth reading and are as follows. It is interesting how even serious stamp collectors of today have know only a little about these giants of our hobby:
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The biographies of the fifteen members elected in 1941 are arranged in the order they were announced by the selection committee.
Sir Rowland Hill, K.C.B.
(December 3, 1795