Alfred F. Kugel, 1930 – 2022
Al Kugel of Hinsdale, Ill, died May 11, 2022 at age 91. A Life Member of the MPHS,
Al served our Society as a director, vice-president and president. At the time of his death, Al
had the lowest membership number (434) of any active member.
Al was associated with many philatelic organizations, but especially Chicagopex, the Military Postal History Society, and the American Philatelic Society. He served as a director of the Chicago Philatelic Society, and as exhibit chairman and general chairman of Chicagopex. The CPS honored Kugel with its Saul Newbury and Aubrey Berman awards.
With his experience in the investment field Al brought financial stability to Chicagopex considered to be one of the best World Series of Philately venues. As a member of the American Philatelic Society’s finance committee he advised the APS on its investment portfolio.
Al was an expert on military postal history and had over one hundred single and multiframe exhibits in this field. He contributed scores of articles in this area, many of them in the Military Postal History Society Bulletin. He also contributed to The American Philatelist, Collectors Club Philatelist, Postal History Society Journal, Rossica journal of Russian philately, German Postal Specialist, Fil-Italia, News of Hungarian Philately, American Philatelic Congress Book, and The Posthorn among others. Al and co-author Ed Dubin received the United States Stamp Society’s Barbara Mueller award for the best article in the 2017 issues of The American Philatelist.
Al was an APS accredited philatelic judge and served on CANEJ. In 2005 he was awarded the John N. Luff award for distinguished philatelic research and in 2011 he was elected to the APS Writers Hall of Fame. He was a council member of the American Philatelic Congress, an officer in the Collectors Club of Chicago, a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London, and he served on the Smithsonian National Postal Museum’s council of philatelists.
To say that Al will be missed by many of us in the MPHS is a gross understatement.
NOTE: A collection of personal appreciations of Al will be in the October Bulletin. Member input encouraged. (Please contact Editor Dann Mayo.)
His Legacy
Al graciously supplied this Society with copies of his many exhibits and presentations. His family has allowed MPHS to scan the thousands of pages of exhibit material from his collection. The MPHS has set up a web page that will be the electronic “Al Kugel Room” (to go with a physical “room” that will be at the American Philatelic Society headquarters in the future.) The “room” on the website is located at:
The photo connected to this posting shows American Philatelic Society President, Dr. Peter McCann (L), presenting the APS research medal to Al Kugel(R) at NAPEX 2001.