Howard Selzer, 1922 - 2012
Above: Howard at the 21st Anniversary dinner with Derek Clayton (L) and William Wells (R)
Tribute by Susan McEwen
I regret to inform you that we have now heard that Howard J. Selzer died on the 8th September 2012, just two days before his 90th birthday.
Howard, of Chicago, Illinois, founded the Malaya Study Group back in 1959, and was Editor of TMP (1959-1970) Secretary and Treasurer (1963-1970), he was member no. 1, and our first Life Member (elected in 1970).
We had intermittent contact with him till 2004 on the occasion of our 45th Anniversary.
There will be an obituary in The Malayan Philatelist. Sadly only a few of the ‘old hands’ will remember meeting him on his trips, but all MSG members owe him gratitude for his foresight in founding the MSG.
Tribute by Nick Hackney
I met Howard Selzer in London, when he came over for the 1980 International Exhibition, and for the MSG’s 21st anniversary dinner. He remarked then on his perspicacity in founding the Group in 1959 so that the anniversary would fall on a convenient date.
A historical note from the CD of The Malayan Philatelist
The philatelic journal “The Malayan Philatelist” can be regarded as the foundation stone of the Malaya Study Group. This is because Mr. Howard J. Selzer of Chicago, USA, having received positive responses from a small number of corrrespondents in the USA and UK, produced and published Issue No. 1, dated June 1959, which effectively announced the formation of the Malaya Study Group.
Howard remained Group Secretary, and as Editor, produced six issues per year for almost 10 years. In 1969, he was unable to continue and agreed that the administration of the Group, including its journal, should be transferred to the UK, where a “branch” had been established to hold meetings, publish a newsletter, circulate packets and hold auctions.
Howard was active in many other fields of philately, being a member of the New Jersey Postal History Society, and a contributor of many articles to the Illinois Postal Historian, a few of these are listed below.
Chicago Mail Before the Post Office Was Established-The John Crafts Papers – Howard Selzer
Columbus (Adams): A Foreign Mail Cover from Columbus, Illinois – Howard Selzer
A.H.M.S. Correspondence – Howard J. Selzer
Galena (Jo Daviess): From Surveyor to Congressman As Told in Galena by the Lucius Lyon Papers – Howard J. Selzer
Lenzburg (St. Clair): Lenzburg, St. Clair County, Illinois – Another Look – Howard Selzer
Schaumberg (Cook): Shaumburgh – Schaumberg – Schaumburg – Howard Selzer
Howard cuts the 21st Anniversary cake with Shirley Cannicott
Howard’s Malaya Collection was sold on November 6th 1986 in Zurich at a prestigious auction by Christie’s Robson Lowe.
Thanks to Mac McClaren for these pictures from the MSG archive.