Mazepa wins 2024 Lichtenstein award

By Linn’s Staff

The Collectors Club has awarded its Alfred F. Lichtenstein Memorial award for distinguished service to philately to James P. Mazepa of University Park, Fla., one of America’s leading philatelists. The award was announced at the club’s annual meeting in New York City on Jan. 10.

Larry Haber, president of the Collectors Club, said Mazepa’s selection by the award’s nominating committee was unanimously endorsed by the club’s 15 directors.

In forwarding its recommendation to the board, the committee noted: “With his deep knowledge and experience, Dr. Mazepa has been for decades a mentor and advisor to scores of philatelists in the United States and overseas … his nomination for the Lichtenstein Award is frankly long overdue.”

The naming of a single recipient marks a return to traditional practice by the club; last year it took the unusual step of naming three winners: Trish Kaufmann, Randy Neil and Charles Verge. In previous years. it has always named one or, at most, two people.

Mazepa’s longtime focus has been on the philately of Poland and Ukraine, where his grandparents immigrated from, with particular interest in Poland’s first issue of 1860 and the immediate post-World War I period.

He has expanded his interests to include Mexico, Guatemala and other Latin American areas. He also collects and has built an exhibit around the United States 5¢ Poland commemorative (Scott 909) of the 1942 Overrun Countries issue (909-921).

Over his lifetime, Mazepa has written extensively about philately, with more than 200 published articles and monographs. His most recent article, on Poland’s postal communications to Ukraine and Russia, appeared in the January-February 2024 issue of the Collectors Club Philatelist.

He is also the editor of the Polonus handbook series and associate editor of the Polonus Bulletin, both of which cover Polish philately.

Mazepa began collecting at the age of 9 when his mother bought him an album and 300 foreign stamps. He immediately got a roll of Scotch tape and put them in the album. Among the first stamps he bought from the only stamp store in Gary, Ind., was a set of the U.S. Overrun Countries for 99¢.

Mazepa recalled that he “grew up in the ‘philatelic incubator’ of the Collectors Club of Chicago and the Chicago Philatelic Society.”

Among those he calls “great mentors and philatelic greats” were Bud Hennig, Les Winick, Jay Bard, Richard Canman, Bill Bauer, Charless Hann, Floyd Risvold, Harvey Karlen and Arthur Salm.

After a career as a professor of family psychology at the University of Chicago, Mazepa retired and enjoyed a second career as a financial planner.

Mazepa won his first American Philatelic Society Champion of Champions award in 2000 for his exhibit “Mexico: The First Issues of 1856-61.” He won the Champion of Champions again — one of few philatelists to repeat that accomplishment — in 2017 for “Colonial Central America, 1630-1824.” He has also won no fewer than 12 international gold or large gold awards for those and other exhibits.

Mazepa’s resume of contributions includes serving on the organizing teams of U.S. international stamp shows as far back as Ameripex in 1986.

He has served as president or chairman of a number of prominent societies; sat on the expert committees of the American Philatelic Society, the Mexico-Elmhurst Philatelic Society International and the Polonus Philatelic Society; chaired the APS international committee for eight years; been a leading philatelic judge at both the national and international level, and served as the U.S. commissioner for 13 overseas exhibitions.

He has been the recipient of some of philately’s highest awards, including being invited in 2015 to sign the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists, perhaps the hobby’s greatest honor.

In 2010, the APS bestowed its John N. Luff award on Mazepa, and in 2008, he became one of only three Americans elected to the Real Academia Hispanica de Filatelia e Historia Postal (Royal Spanish Academy of Philately and Postal History). He is also a fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London.

In 2023, the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors bestowed on him its Bud Hennig award for excellence in judging.

“Bud Hennig got me into judging and was my mentor,” Mazepa said. “One of the first exhibitions he and I judged was the Polpex exhibition of the Polonus Society. He told me to first look at the exhibition catalog to review the exhibits … The exhibits were in two categories: Poland and Foreign! This is why receiving the AAPE Hennig award meant so much to me.”

Mazepa and his wife, Jean, have been married for 53 years. His other interests include reading history books and biographies of U.S. statesmen; philatelic research and writing; and cooking.

Alfred F. Lichtenstein (1876-1947) was widely considered one of the greatest American philatelists of the first half of the 20th century. The award in his memory was established by the Collectors Club in 1952, and its first recipient was Lichtenstein’s good friend and co-founder of the Philatelic Foundation, Theodore Steinway.

More information can be found at the club’s website.

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