You will soon be receiving your 2008 membership dues notice.  We would appreciate your help in sending in your 2008 dues early before you become too busy with the holiday season.  You can also order a bound volume of the 2008 United States Specialist for delivery in 2009.

Please remember that The United States Specialist and USSS membership is on a calendar year basis.  To avoid missing an issue of the journal, please renew before the end of the year and take a $3 discount from the yearly dues of $25.

Many members give additional contributions for the work of the Society. Their continued generosity allows our Society to provide monthly the in-depth research information you have come to expect in The United States Specialist as well as the popular Research Papers, Reprints and Books published for our members’ use.

We would like to recognize those members who contribute to the Sustaining, Contributing and Patron levels as well as to the Hardship Fund by listing them in our journal.  If, however, you wish to contribute but remain anonymous, there is a place to so indicate on the dues notice.

Your Society’s operations require four to five weeks to process address changes and renewals until the next month’s issue of The Specialist is delivered.  When members do not renew until February or March, continuation of The Specialist is not guaranteed.  The restarting of the journal to a delinquent dues payer adds expense.  Please let us know if you plan to drop your membership, too.

—Larry Ballantyne
Executive Secretary

Word has been received that Sam Frank (USSS #8007) passed away on September 15, 2007. Sam was a native of Stockton, California and a graduate of the University of California at Riverside in mathematics. He was an operations and computer software analyst for 40 years in the defense and space industry. He lived in Westford, Massachusetts and spent summers on Cape Cod with his family. Sam had been involved in town government in Westford for many years, in both elected and appointed positions. He was instrumental in Westford’s adopting a town manager form of government. Sam is survived by his wife of 47 years, Carole. They had two children, Michael and Lisa, and a 5-year old grandson, Sam.

Sam’s interest in U.S. booklets and booklet panes spanned 35 years. Certain issues were pursued intensively, such as the 1903 2¢ “Shield” booklet (Scott #319g/h), the 1962 5¢ Washington (Scott #1213a/c), as well as all airmail and Possessions issues. Sam met Don Littlefield at Ameripex in 1986 and edited an early draft version of Don’s “Book on Booklets.”

I only met Sam twice. The first time was at Pacific 97 where I had a draft copy of the Book on Booklets that George Godin had worked on after Don Littlefield died in 1995. Sam had an interest in seeing it completed and volunteered to take over the project to finish the “Book on Booklets” that Dr. Bill Bush had started 30 years earlier.

Sam only managed to get the first of three volumes published. In December, 2006, Sam told me he planned on having a second volume published in time for the 2008 Annual USSS Meeting in Boxborough, MA (since moved to Nojex in Secaucus, NJ). Sam was actively working on it two weeks before he died.

Sam will be fondly remembered and sorely missed by many in the booklet collecting community.

—Michael O. Perry