Stan Jersey

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From the Fall 2010 Bulletin

Stanley Coleman Jersey, 1921-2010

MPHS Past President Stan Jersey died September 20, 2010 in Encinitas, Calif. at the age of 89. He was born in Chicago and for many years maintained residences in both Chicago and in California. Jersey was involved with the food export business which required extensive travel and provided the opportunity to broaden his interests in stamps and postal history. However, his greatest interest in collecting, exhibiting, and philatelic writing grew out of his service as a medical air evacuation specialist in the South Pacific during the Second World War.

His exhibits garnered many awards nationally and internationally. Two of the more recent ones were “New Caledonia Postal History: The War Years 1941-1945,” and “Under the Southern Cross: U.S. Forces’ Mail in the British Solomon Islands, World War II.”

His articles ranged widely in such topics as collecting military covers, the “China Marines” regiment, and postal history of Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Corregidor, New Caledonia, New Hebrides, the Society Islands, Samoa, APO and Navy numbers in the Cook Islands, and the Marines in Korea among others.

Stan’s articles appeared in Stamp Collector, the American Philatelist, SAS/O Informer, Linn’s Stamp News, Military Postal Hislory Society Bulletin, American Philatelic Congress Book, The Philatelist & Philalelic Journai of Great Britain, SPA Journal, and elsewhere. He authored several books including Postal History of United States Forces in British Solomon Protectorate during World War (1968), Postal History of the United States & Japanese Military Forces in the Gilbert & Ellice Islands, World War Two (1978), Japanese Military Force in the Solomon Islands: Notes on Postal History, the War in the Pacific (1984), and New Hebrides Islands: Military Postal History of the United States Forces 1942-1946 (1994).

Stan Jersey’s research extended beyond military postal history into military history itself. He spent 20 years conducting interviews with over 200 people and studying archives in Australia, Japan, and the United States to create his detailed and breath-taking study, Hell’s Islands: The Untold Story of Guadalcanal, a 536-page book published in 2008. At the time of death he was working on another book about the Japanese presence in the Aleutian Islands during WW II.

During his term as president of the War Cover Club in the early 1990s, Jersey was instrumental in bringing about the organization’s name change to Military Postal History Society. He also initiated committee work to revise the society’s by laws.

Stan established the Military Postal History Society Outstanding Service Award, and was presented with that honor in 1997.

In addition to leading the MPHS Stan was also past president of the Chicago Philatelic Society. He was active in the Collectors Club of Chicago and was a fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London. He served as an advisor to the Guadalcanal Solomon Islands War Memorial Foundation, and when the memorial was dedicated in 1992 on the 50th anniversary, he worked with the postal service to prepare event covers for the occasion. Stan donated philatelic and non-philatelic materials to the Marine Corps Museum. He was honored for his philatelic contributions in the Spring 1993 issue of Fortitudine, the bulletin of the U.S. Marine Corps History Division.

Stan Jersey is survived by his wife Jeanne, four children, six grandchildren and one great grandson. A funeral mass was held at St. Giles Catholic Church in Oak Park, Ill. on September 28.

Alan Warren

More information about the Military Postal History Society Outstanding Service Award.

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