Alf Jordan and Miklos Pinther Named Lifetime Members

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ALF JORDAN AND MIKLOS PINTHER NAMED LIFETIME MEMBERS OF THE CARTOPHILATELIC SOCIETY

July 8, 2011 Download the PDF file

The CartoPhilatelic Society is pleased to announce that Dr. Alf Jordan and Mr. Miklos Pinther have been named Lifetime Members of the Society in recognition of their long and meritorious service and contributions to the Society. Founded in 1955, the Society has a world-wide membership of collectors interested in maps on stamps. Dr. Jordan and Mr. Pinther are the first Society members to be so honored.

Dr. Jordan, a native of New York, NY, received a BA from Yale University; an MD from Case Western Reserve University; and an MA from the University of South Maine. He practiced in Sioux City, IA until retiring to Yarmouth, ME. While in Iowa, Mr. Jordan began collecting maps, a passion that continues to this day. Like many of us, he began collecting stamps early, in his case the result of inheriting a US collection from his grandmother before he was 10. His collecting remained dormant until a few years ago when he began collecting stamps on stamps. That interest led to his meeting Bill Critzer, the editor of the Stamps on Stamps Collectors Club journal, Signal.

Dr. Jordan had an ongoing interest in maps and the map stamps. He mentioned to Mr. Critzer that it was too bad the cartophilatelic group had become inactive. Mr. Critzer then challenged Dr. Jordan: “Well, why don’t you start it back up?” And he did. Under Dr. Jordan’s leadership former members, including former secretary/treasurer Lillian Kent who maintained the treasury, checklist, and membership list during the period of dormancy, were contacted; new officers recruited; and the Society became active again with the publication of the first issue of the Society’s quarterly journal, The New CartoPhilatelist, in March 2003.

Dr. Jordan served as President of the Society until 2004, then as Secretary/Treasurer until his “retirement” earlier this year. During his tenure as Secretary/Treasurer he was responsible for printing and distributing The New CartoPhilatelist. He is currently focusing his attention on United States maps related to the expansion of railroads throughout the west and the land grants provided as in incentive to build these. Dr. Jordan and his wife, Annie, have 4 children and 9 grandchildren. Dr. Jordan was the key in re-establishing the CartoPhilatelic Society.

Miklos Pinther immigrated to the United States from Hungary shortly after the failed 1956 revolution. He began his career as a cartographer at the American Geographical Society (“AGS”) while studying geography at Columbia University. He was appointed as Head of the Cartographic Department in 1969, a position he held until 1977. During this time he supervised the preparation of a number of excellent maps of Antarctica. This work was recognized by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1976 when an arc-shaped mountain ridge in Antarctica, 6 miles long, isolated and snow covered, was named the Pinther Ridge.

In 1978, Mr. Pinther joined the Cartographic Section of the United Nations, and was the Chief Cartographer for the UN from 1985 until his retirement in January 2001. Among the notable undertakings during his tenure were the demarcation of the Iraq-Kuwait boundary in 1993 and the establishment of the so-called Blue Line between Israel and Lebanon in 2000. He has traveled widely, visiting over 70 countries, including such far-away places as Mt. Everest and Antarctica.

It was Wilfrid Webster, a founder of The CartoPhilatelic Society (the Carto-Philatelists at the time) and a fellow colleague and mentor at AGS, who first introduced Mr. Pinther to collecting map stamps. At the urging from Mark Larkin, a former editor of The Carto-Philatelist, he held the position of President of the Society, and Publisher of The Carto-Philatelist, from 1986 to 1995, and since 2003 has been President Emeritus. He also edited the Society’s successful book, America on the Map (2007), the first of a planned series of occasional publications, and is in the midst of editing the second volume of this series. He is also a frequent contributor to The New CartoPhilatelist.

Mr. Pinther is a member of a number of other philatelic organizations including the German cartophilatelic society, Landkarten-Vermessung-Entdeckungsgeschichte der Erde, and The Collectors Club in New York where he served for several years on the Board of Governors. His cartophilatelic interests range widely from essays and proofs to mint stamps, to map stamps on covers, and even to poster stamps. Recently he has been spending most of his hobby time hunting for pre-2000 material to fill the many gaps in his collection. Mr. Pinther is currently assembling an exhibit which will be used to publicize cartophilately to traditional collectors.

The CartoPhilatelic Society is an affiliate of the American Philatelic Society and the American Topical Association. The New CartoPhilatelist is published quarterly for members; each issue contains many articles of interest to those who collect maps on stamps. An extensive Maps on Stamps Checklist is also available to members. Information about the Society can be found at www.mapsonstamps.com, or by contacting the Secretary, Marybeth Sulkowski, Unit 209, 1117 Douglas Avenue, North Providence, RI 02904.

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For more information, please contact:
David Wolfersberger, President
768 Chain Ridge Road
St. Louis, MO 63122
(314) 961-5032
dwolfersberger@cartophilately.org