by Lloyd A. de Vries
Janet R. Klug, the first woman president of the American Philatelic Society, has died at the age of 72. She served 16 consecutive years on the APS Board of Directors, the longest of 
anyone in its history.
She also served as member of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum’s Council of Philatelists, its New Initiatives Committee, the U.S. Postal Service’s Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee, and in many of the committees and programs of the APS.
She received many awards in her lifetime, including the Elizabeth C. Pope Award for Lifetime Contributions to Philately (2011), the Luff Award for Outstanding Service to the APS (2014) and the Smithsonian Philatelic Achievement Award (2019). She was a gold-medal exhibitor, with several Grands to her credit, as well as an accredited philatelic judge.
She had been in declining health for several years, following a serious automobile accident. She lived in a Cincinnati suburb and is survived by her husband Russell.
I had the privilege of knowing Janet personally, since I served on the APS board with her for eight years, from her first election to it in 1997 as Secretary. We were two of the five first-time Directors elected then. The others were Wayne Youngblood, Ann Triggle and Jeanette Adams. We were amazed by some of what we saw and exchanged emails frequently, calling ourselves “The Gang of Five.”
Many of the accolades now pouring in, in my opinion, miss two of her important accomplishments.
Before her election to the APS board, she had campaigned for greater openness and less secrecy in the leadership of the largest U.S. stamp collecting organization. That you can now attend meetings in person or online is largely due to her efforts. It also set a precedent for other philatelic societies.
At the same time, she worked hard to broaden the scope of “serious” stamp collecting. Her earliest gold-level exhibits involved Tonga’s Tin Can Mail. The South Pacific country was too small and unimportant to merit regular visits from ships and, later, airplanes. Mail to Tonga therefore was placed in tin cans and dropped into the water, to float ashore with
American Philatelic Center dedication, June 2004
the currents. If I recall correctly, some of her exhibits even included actual cans that had been used.
Janet wrote columns in several publications aimed at beginners and helping them get to the next level. She embraced the online world, too, allowing her APS president’s columns to be repeated here on The Virtual Stamp Club, using email, and participating in pre-video “chats.” (Two of those chats on VSC can be found here and here.)
Two of the books she wrote are available on Amazon: Smithsonian Guide to Stamp Collecting and 100 Greatest American Stamps with Donald Sundman.
She also made stamp collecting and our annual conventions fun. As her 2014 Luff citation 
noted, “Janet would often lead APS members in song at APS events around the country.”
A running joke when she spoke at philatelic events was that she would threaten to break into song at any moment. She was always stylish and attractive. As you look at the photographs here, she looks pretty much the same in all of them. In all the years I knew her, I never saw her appear frumpy or “thrown together” — not always easy when you are on the road for a week or more, with one public event after another.
The APS announcement of Janet’s passing includes this quote from her:
“Collecting stamps and letters from bygone days is a way for me to connect on a very personal level with people and events from those times. History is not just about famous people and events. It also encompasses ordinary people doing ordinary things, overcoming the challenges that happen in their lives, surviving, and thriving.”
Janet was far from ordinary, but she is an important part of stamp collecting history.
I interviewed Janet in 2010 shortly after she was appointed to the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee and I asked her about joining CSAC. The complete interview runs just under three minutes and you can hear it (unedited) here.
