Archives International in conjunction with Kelleher & Rogers 22 May 2024

David Edwin Tanner David Edwin Tanner was born on December 7th, 1946, in Paia, Maui, in the Territory of Hawaii. His parents had moved to Hawaii from Japan in 1940. His father, Elmo Tanner, was a traveling school principal, and was stationed on Maui at the time of David’s birth. David and his brother and sister spent an idyllic and carefree childhood in 1950s rural Hawaii on the islands of Maui, Molokai and Lanai. In the early 1960s, his father Elmo got his final principal posting, and the family made the move to settle for good in Hauula, on the island of Oahu. After high school, David attended Church College of Hawaii (now Brigham Young University Hawaii) and majored in mathematics. He then attended the University of Indiana Bloomington and received his Master’s degree in mathematics. David got his interest in stamp and coin collecting from his father, Elmo. His father began collecting US stamps and coins when he moved to Hawaii. David started collecting alongside his father in high school. At first he collected US stamps and coins like his father, but he soon found a personal passion for the stamps and currency of Mexico, which would remain the focus of his collecting for the rest of his life. Over many decades he constructed and curated a personal collection of Mexican stamps and currency that was the pride of his work as a collector. In addition to his love of mathematics, and his passion for stamp, coin and currency collecting, David developed a deep interest in history, engineering and model making. He was an expert model railroad builder. He created elaborate model railroad tracks and landscapes with historical accuracy. David was also a WWII history buff. He focused his model making skills on creating accurate models of WWII tanks and aircraft. David taught math at Kahuku High School on the north shore of Oahu in the late 1970s. During this time, David purchased one of the first personal computers, and taught himself programming. In the early 1980s, David left teaching to pursue a career as a software engineer. Over the course of his career, he worked at Electronic Data Systems Corporation, Saturn Automobile Manufacturing, and Twixtel Corporation. In 1990, he began working as a Software Engineer with the Information Systems and Technology department at MIT. In 2005, on a trip to Beijing, China, David met his future wife, Jinmei Wang. Together they toured the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, and took in a Chinese acrobat show. They married that same year in Chongqing, and built their lives together in Ashland, MA. In their nearly 19 years of marriage, his wife Jinmei describes David as a kind man who valued family happiness. She says that his hobbies and knowledge filled their lives with meaningful and colorful surprises. David worked at MIT until his retirement. He spent his retirement years continuing to refine his stamp, coin and currency collection, watching WWII documentaries, and having breakfasts at the Sunnyside Café with his close friend and fellow MIT-retiree, Henry Bergler. David passed away on November 17, 2023, at the age of 76. Dr. Jay D. Smith, M.D Jay D. Smith, M.D., of West Hartford, Connecticut, was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 2, 1930. An avid philatelist with an engineer’s mind and a poet’s spirit, he attended Brooklyn Technical high school and graduated from Long Island University’s school of pharmacy in 1954. He then completed a medical degree at University of Lausanne in Switzerland, studying and taking all his examinations in French, a language he learned as he went along, supported by his young bride, Rosalie. The experience initiated a lifelong passion for foreign travel and an enduring fondness for Swiss taste: in chocolate, cheese, and the fine graphic sensibility of Helvetia philately. Dr. Smith settled with his family in West Hartford where he served as a family physician in private practice for nearly twenty years. During this time, he began building his stamp collection, starting with first day issues, sparked by his father’s interest in the subject in the 1940s, and expanding into a collection focused on themes of the human collective, social justice, and public health. He enjoyed frequent trips to tri-state stamp shows and processing a steady flow of stamp auction catalogues. In the 1980s, Dr. Smith worked as a medical director for Aetna insurance company before accepting a position at Cologne Life in 1990, where he was promoted to vice president and chief medical director. Dr. Smith’s commitment to supporting the health needs of individuals and their communities extended to public service: serving in the U.S. Army Reserves where he rose to the rank of colonel, sitting for many years on the Connecticut Division Board of Directors of the American Cancer Society, volunteering as a Visiting Physician in underserved communities after retirement, and aiding as “book buddy” for first graders well into his 80s. Years of travel to the Western United States, Western and Northern Europe, the Middle East, and the Caribbean sharpened Jay’s awareness of the tension between the universal human desire to excel in the arts and sports world, and the prejudices that can impede individual and collective progress. These themes informed the range and nature of his stamp collecting, which came to include architecture, Judaica, and the Olympics. Over time, Dr. Smith honed his philatelic interests. The centerpiece of his efforts, showcasing the many philatelic forms by which nations raised funds to underwrite charity for specific causes, is an extensive international collection of Semipostal stamps and covers. As a supplement, through stamps, postcards, and letters, he documented the darkness of the Holocaust and the post-WWII expressions of regret and hopefulness issued by numerous countries. Unsurprisingly for an individual patiently collecting evidence of the best of humanity, Jay had a generous heart. He was devoted to his late wife, Dr. Rosalie Haiblum Smith, with whom he raised three children. The two were extremely active in community life in West Hartford and vicinity. They helped found a local Solomon Schechter School and were founding board members of the Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford, a multicultural arts organization that saved from demolition, and today makes its home in, the first synagogue built in Connecticut (1876). Dr. Smith spent his later years keeping up with community events, world politics, and his grandchildren. After a sudden decline in health, he passed away on October 17, 2023, at the age of 93. Raymond Jette Raymond was born on July 4, 1931 and raised in Lebanon, New Hampshire. He learned the value of hard work from a very young age, with his first job in his uncle’s Shoe Shop. In his teen years and he began stamp collecting as a hobby which continued till his death in 2020. Raymond married Marilyn Lassonde on June 21, 1952. Two weeks after the wedding, he entered the U.S. Army and serve his country honorably as a Corporal during the Korean War. After the military, Raymond began his career, working for the B&M Railroad. He started out as a Brakeman and in 1956 was transferred to Springfield, MA where he and his wife raised five children, 3 boys and two girls. Featured Biographies