His daughter reports on Facebook that former American Philatelic Society president Randy Neil passed away Wednesday, March 6, 2024. He was 82.
In real life, he was a professional cheerleader, helping create the Kansas City Chiefs cheerleader squad and running a shop for cheerleading supplies, The Spirit Shop, in Kansas City. In philately, he was also a cheerleader — warm, friendly, humorous and a great “front man” for our hobby. I had the pleasure of serving with him on the APS Board, and I will miss seeing him at shows.
To give you an idea of how gregarious Randy was, he told me at StampShow 1994, when he was President, that it took him two hours to cross the bourse!
Randy moved from professional cheerleading to, well, another form of cheerleading: Publicity and public relations, as well and editing and establishing a number of stamp collecting publications.
He is shown above at the first-day ceremony for the U.S. stamps promoting World Stamp Show-New York. There are some photos of him at his last board meeting as APS president in 1997 here. That same year saw a major change on the board, with five first-time members, including three women: Secretary Janet Klug, Directors-at-Large Ann Triggle and Jeanette Adams, and Directors-at-Large Wayne Youngblood and myself. There was also a hotly-contested election for President between Ken Lawrence and John Hotchner, rather than the usual “passing of the torch” successions.
Randy then became Immediate Past President, but just two years later, he stepped off the board when Hotchner decided not to run for re-election as president. During a small party after his retirement, I was standing near Randy when he muttered, “We got exactly the Board that we wanted.”
You can read or listen to The Virtual Stamp Club radio feature on him from 2016.
This story is evolving and may be updated more than once. Keep checking back for the latest.
I just sent the following to AFDCS officers and directors. It doesn’t begin to list all of his contirbutions to the hobby. Not sure that would be possible to list them all.
I have received word that Randy Neil, AFDCS Charter member 00945, has passed away. He originally joined the AFDCS as a junior member, probably in 1956. He wasn’t an AFDCS member for the entire time, having reinstated his membership several times, but was a member as recently as 2023, when he did not renew due to ill health. Obituary at:
https://popularobits.com/2024/03/07/randy-neil-obituary-lleawood-ks-tribute-to-a-life-well-lived/
Randy probably did everything in philately – editor, author, exhibitor, publisher, APS President from 1991-1993. Gerald Strauss recruited him as a junior member (along with Alan Warren) to write in the early issues of First Days. Along with John Hotchner, he formed the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors (AAPE). He received the APS Luff Award in 2000 for outstanding contributions to the APS and the APS Charles J. Peterson Philatelic Literature Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. He was a Vooys Fellow of the American Philatelic Research Library.
From his website: http://www.randyneil.com/AboutRN.htm
APS Charlie Peterson Award citation: https://stamps.org/Portals/0/Awards/Peterson-Award-Neil.pdf
From the Collectors Club: https://www.collectorsclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Randy-Neil.pdf
Thank you for the information. Unfortunately, I can’t access that “popular obits” site at all. [That was on Firefox. It worked on Chrome.]
Some 25-30 years ago, when I first got involved in national organized philately, I said when I grew up, I wanted to be Randy Neil. I still do.