Gordon Bleuler 1917-2007

A long life lived well in philately. Born in Muscogee, OK. in Jan. 1917. Gordon became an advanced stamp collector when by the age of 15 he was invited to be a founder of the Oklahoma Philatelic Society in Tulsa, holding Charter Member # 8. In 1940, Gordon sold his extensive U.S. Commemorative stamp collection in order to make a down payment on a new home in Dallas, TX. Gordon then began new collections of U.S. Postal History with specialization in Oklahoma and Indian Territory, Texas, Florida Confederate States, Hawaii, Alaska and all Western States. His Civil War postal history both Northern and Southern is well known. Gordon may have been inspired by the well known Oklahoma Humorist Will Rogers' famous saying that "He never met a man he didn't like" to Gordon's saying that "He never met a collector that he didn't like".
Gordon was a contributor to various philatelic books, frequently wrote articles for various publications, talked to Clubs and Societies and presented many award winning Postal History exhibits. His foreign collections included stamps and covers of the Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan and French Antarctica.
Gordon was also an artist in that he hand illustrated many of the pages in his Exhibits. Gordon also created a one of a kind group of hand drawn Texas Sesquicentennial envelopes for the 1986 event.
On a personal note, Gordon and I met in 1978. He became my mentor in collecting U.S. 19th Century Postal History. Gordon always had a smile, a great sense of humor and his many friends became my friends as well.

Col. Jim Doolin

Since early childhood, Vernon had an unquenchable thirst for philatelic knowledge. This desire and willingness to share with others has added much to the hobby. On March 21, 2006, Vernon lost his battle with leukemia which he had fought for over two years.

A native of Asheville, North Carolina, he was a member of the First Baptist Church where he served as a life deacon. He wrote the history of the church. He attended Davidson College and Asheville-Biltmore College, now UNC Asheville, and completed two years of photographic trade school at the Archer School of Photographic Arts in California. He joined the U.S. Air Corps in 1944 and was transferred to the U.S. Marine Corps. He served until 1946.

After military service, Vernon returned to California and began his profession within the photographic industry where he worked from 1949 to 1974. During this time, he pursued his philatelic interest as a general U.S. collector until he discovered Perfin in the early 1960's. He assembled quite a large collection of Perfins. Just before he moved back to North Carolina in 1974, he purchased a collection of North Carolina postal history. This would set the stage for his passion over the next 32 years.

Vernon began his second career as a furniture representative taking over his father's furniture sales district covering North Carolina, South Carolina and later Virginia. His travels with this career allowed him to do considerable research on the postal history of North Carolina. In February 1982 he became one of the 17 founding members of the North Carolina Postal History Society. He would later serve as president of the organization. In 1989 he became the co-editor of the N.C. Postal History Journal. Throughout his tenure he produced 64 issues. He was working on the last issue when he was taken to the hospital for the last time.

As chief editor of the four volume "Post Offices and Postmasters of North Carolina" published in 1996, Vernon became the foremost authority of North Carolina postal history. No other states published work can compare to the thoroughness in this work.

Vernon was a member of the APS Perfin Society and the Confederate Stamp Alliance as well as other state and local philatelic organizations.

With the closing of his albums, a true friend to the hobby has been lost. The knowledge gained from his research is, however, preserved for future generations thanks to his desire to publish all he could.

                                                                   By Tony L. Crumbley