Having collected stamps early on in my childhood and on-and-off over the years, I only got back into more serious collecting when Foil Miller introduced me to the CPOSSU back around 1988 or 1989. My official membership says member since 1998, but I am sure that is wrong; I must have forgotten to pay my dues one year or another and had to re-join. Anyway, having worked at the Pittsburgh Conference for many years first as an exhibitor in 1968 in Cleveland and later as show daily publisher and editor of Chemical Equipment magazine in 1979, the last year in Cleveland, I was always fascinated with the Pittcon philatelic committee and their work at the Show.

I used to say that when I retire my ambition was to spend my time as a volunteer at the Philatelic Booth. But now that I am really retired that still has not happened.

I was a Physics major at Penn State but took mostly Chemistry courses. That is the extent of my actual chemistry background except for my Chem Craft chemistry set that got much use in the kitchen at home on the farm in Pennsylvania.

I was an instrument maker at Leeds & Northrup for a number of years and worked on many of the early Perkin Elmer instruments and other analytical instruments of the period using L&N instruments. I later became copywriter in the L&N advertising department specializing in environmental instrumentation and laboratory instruments and standards. I wrote a series of articles at that time about major standards labs in the country.

After L&N I started my own advertising agency for about five years. Later I joined Gordon Publications as editor of Chemical Equipment and Petrochemical Equipment News and later started the Gordon Show Daily department. Then, in 1985, my wife, Judith Wright, and I both left Gordon and started National Trade Show Press. We published the first Pittsburgh Conference TODAY magazine at the 1989 Pittcon in New Orleans. The rest is history. We sold the business to Centcom, publisher of ACS publications in 2000 and continued as a consultant with Centcom for a few more years.

Today we are living in Colorado and I am active with the Rocky Mountain Philatelic Library as a volunteer and editor of their Scribblings newsletter. I am also Publicity Chairman for the Rocky Mountain Stamp Show in Denver. I am a member of some of the local stamp clubs and Past President of the Denver Stamp Club.