Rotarian Dennis Digamon introduced the Club’s fellow Rotarian, Past President, and program speaker, Charles Deusner. Charles is a long-time member, and based upon his estimation, is our oldest member of the Club! To give context to that statement, Franklin D. Roosevelt was president for the first 9 years of Charles’ life. (You do the math from there.) Charles is proud to be a Rotarian, and is proud to be a part of the Rotary Club of Plant City. He appreciates what our Club does for each other, and for the community.
Roosevelt was a stamp collector. In fact, on the afternoon that he suffered a stroke that ultimately killed him, he was sitting at a table working with his stamps. Charles took an interest in stamps at a young age, buying stamps from the local dime store and Woolworths, but put it away when he was about 12 years old. Charles’ career was in teaching, and he taught history for about 40 years.
When Charles retired, he pulled out his old stamp collection and got involved in local stamp collecting organizations. For the past 20 years, has collected mail that has historical significance, or “postal history.” Charles shared a portion of his postal history collection with the Club.
Charles’ collection begins with items from the early 1800s, before stamps existed, before a delivery system existed, and when mail was simply sent as folded letters. Charles then walked us through the evolution of stamps and letters, beginning with the first stamp, the “Penny Black,” which was produced in 1840.
Charles then narrated a very interesting historical overview of stamps and letters between 1840 and present day, including stamps from the Civil War, from early Europe, from Roosevelt’s fourth inauguration, and even some risque stamps that made this reporter blush.
Thank you, Charles, for your informative and interesting program, and for your commitment to Rotary!
