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Madison alumni to be mailed around the world
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Also by Ken Harris:
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by Ken Harris
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Two University of Wisconsin alumni will be featured on United States Postal Service stamps that will debut in late February and early March.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings will be featured as this year’s representative of the “Literary Arts” series. The stamp will be released Feb. 21, when there will be a ceremony to commemorate the stamp at the site of Rawlings’ Florida home.
Another UW alumnus, physicist John Bardeen, will also be honored with his own stamp as part of the USPS “American Scientists” series.
According to Marge Oehlke, Wisconsin spokesperson for the USPS, the postal service only releases one “Literary Arts” stamp per year.
“That individual is chosen from a field of very renowned individuals for that category,” Oehlke said.
Being honored with her own stamp puts Rawlings in the company of writers such as Dorothy Parker, Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin and Ayn Rand.
Rawlings graduated from UW in 1918 and won a Pulitzer Prize for her novel that takes place in the backwoods of Florida, “The Yearling.” According to Oehlke, Rawlings’ stamp features a drawing of her face in front of a scene of a fawn in the Florida scrub-country.
Oehlke added there are currently no plans to hold a ceremony for the stamp’s release on the UW campus, but said they are working on organizing one. She said USPS will have to talk to someone from UW to get approval.
According to Jim Mruk, USPS Great Lakes Area manager of communications, Bardeen, who taught as a professor at the University of Illinois, was a Madison native and graduate of UW where his father was a professor.
UW named the medical laboratories building after his father.
Mruk said the scientists series will be released March 6 at a “mega stamp show” in New York City that will be attended by Edward Hubble, of Hubble telescope fame.
Bardeen was co-inventor of the transistor, which many consider to be the most important invention of the twentieth century, according to Mruk.
“The ‘American Scientists’ series acknowledges events and achievements that are important to our country, history and culture,” Mruk said. “Before these stamps, I wasn’t even aware of Mr. Bardeen.”
Oehlke said she is very proud there are two different UW alumni being honored this year.
“To have two this year is highly unusual,” she added. “That really says a lot about the UW System.”
According to Oehlke, people may have to act quickly to get the stamps. She said the stamps are only good until the next rate increase, which will be May 5.
She added she does not know if the stamps will be re-released after that.
James Mruk (February 21, 2008 @ 11:22am):
Ken:
Thank you for your nice story. However, you misunderstood my comment about Edwin Hubble. The American Scientists issue is a block of four stamps honoring John Bardeen, Edwin Hubble, Linus Pauling, and Gerty Cori. Hubble, of Hubble telescope fame, is the most recognized of the four. With the exception of U.S.Presidents, an individual most be deceased at least 10 years before being honored with a commemorative stamp. However, it's likely one of Hubble's decendents will attend the First Day ceremony.
James Mruk
US Postal Service
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