At the Business Meeting of the attending Membership in San Antonio, Texas, Saturday, May 18, 2024 the new Officers and Board of Trustees members were voted into office. Below is a a complete list of the current Board of Trustees and Past Presidents
Officers
President: Jim West is a lifelong collector. Some of his earliest memories are of working on his stamp collection with his grandmother. About 30 years ago, he began collecting material on polar exploration and voyages. Manuscripts readers will remember his articles about a letter of Fridtjof Nansen and another of Jane Franklin, wife of the tragically lost explorer John Franklin. West is retired from a career in technology management and consulting. He holds graduate degrees in computer science and philosophy from Indiana University.
Vice President: Peter Klarnet has been a trustee since 2018. Klarnet is a specialist in manuscript Americana at Christie’s New York office. There Peter Klarnet he has worked with a number of major collections, including that of fabled dealer William S. Reese. Klarnet also handled the Richard N. Goodwin papers now at the University of Texas at Austin, a stop on our annual meeting tour. In 2018 Klarnet brought the Albert Einstein “God letter” to auction and achieved a record $2.89 million. He holds a BA from Antioch College and an MA from the University of Delaware, both in history.
Treasurer: Anthony Loscalzo continues as Treasurer. While on a European holiday he met Bill Coleman, then President of the Society, who introduced him to the pleasures of collecting and gave him a gift membership. He joined the Manuscript Society in 1987. In his professional life Anthony is an attorney and his collecting tastes run to the eclectic. Anthony has been Treasurer of the Society since 2004.
Board of Trustees
Gerald “Jay” Gaidmore (2027) returns for a second term on the board. Gaidmore is the Marian and Alan McLeod Director of the Special Collections Research Center at William & Mary. He has more than 20 years’ experience as an archivist with the Library of Virginia, Brown University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Currently, he is president of the Williamsburg Historic Records Association. Gaidmore holds an MA in history from Old Dominion University and a Master of Library and Information Sciences from the University of South Carolina.
Dianne Garrett Powell (2025) has built a career in marketing and management for nonprofits and for-profit businesses. A longtime resident of San Antonio, Texas, she has volunteered with over 40 local and national organizations. Her collection focuses on maps, with an emphasis on world maps by early cartographers. Besides the Manuscript Society, she serves on the board of the Phillip Lee Phillips Society of the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division.
Dan Hamelberg (2026) of Champaign, Illinois, has collected autographs and manuscripts for some four decades. Among his collections are autograph letters signed by US presidents while in office as well as material from Declaration of Independence and Constitution signers. He also collects Revolutionary War maps, printed forms of the Declaration, and other notable early American documents and books. An aficionado of rare American coins, he is a trustee of the American Numismatic Society and a past president of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. (His library of American numismatic literature is considered the best in private hands.) Apart from his collecting life, Dan is chairman of the University Group, an Illinois real estate holding company.
Scott Mubarak, MD (2027) also returning for a second term, is the retired surgeon-in-chief at Rady Children’s Hospital, San Diego, and professor of orthopedics at UC San Diego School of Medicine. His honors include the Nicolas Andry Lifetime Achievement Award as well as the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Pediatric Orthopedic Society of North America. Dr. Mubarak has published biographical papers on physicians and, under the pen name CJ Cook, books about South Pacific artists. He earlier served as a Manuscript Society trustee from 2012 to 2018.
Vernon R. Morris Jr., MD (2027) is back on board after a requisite break between terms. Dr. Morris is an orthopedic spine surgeon retired to part-time medical-legal consulting. A notable stamp collector, he has twice received the Susan McDonald Award for research publications from the United States Philatelic Classics Society, where he is vice president. His honors also include the American Philatelic Society’s prestigious National Championship and international large gold medals in five countries. This year he celebrates his 50th class reunion at Temple University Medical SchoolAt last year’s Balpex Show, he won the Single Frame Grand Award. That enters him in the National Championship in November. Vern collects documents from many periods in American history and finds colonial and Revolutionary America of particular interest.
George Snook (2026) comes to the board with some history. His father, of the same name, was a longtime member of the Manuscript Society. In fact, history is a running theme for George. He earned a BA in history from the University of New Hampshire and followed it with an MA in European history from Fordham. He went on to teach history, retiring from the Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn last year. George collects rare books, antiques, and manuscripts.
Bob Snyder (2025) is a dealer and auctioneer of historical documents, manuscripts, books, antiquarian materials, and collectibles. He learned from the best, including his parents, Phil and Elaine. Now Bob heads the family business, Cohasco Inc. in Yonkers, New York. Bob is one of the youngest writers ever published in Manuscripts. In 1970, at age 15, he penned an article on his discovery of a Pennsylvania diary recording the Johnstown Flood. Even before then, manuscripts were an all-consuming interest, and they still are today.
Past Presidents
Edward Bomsey, Michael J. Dabrishus, John D. Haskell, Beverly Hill, Robert Hopper, Ellen Howell Myers, Allen Ottens, Scott W. Petersen, Kenneth W. Rendell, Douglass F. Rohrman, Mary C. Schlosser, and Dr. Barton L. Smith
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