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Taken from the Texas Philatetist February 2015:

Thirty years ago this February, Texas collectors and national dignitaries gathered in Fredericksburg, Texas, for a first day of issue ceremony for the Fleet Admiral
Chester Nimitz 50-cent stamp in the Great Americans Series. It was a grand ceremony at the Nimitz Museum on Main Street that was once the “Steamboat Hotel,” built by the admiral’s grandfather.
The road to that ceremony on Feb. 22, 1985, was an interesting one that two TPA
members remember with amusement and pride. Tom Koch was the editor of the weekly stamp column in the Dallas Times Herald metro daily newspaper. Norman Cohen was active in state first day of issue events and a consultant in the Texas Sesquicentennial issue.
Q – Tom, what prompted you to become involved in a Nimitz stamp campaign?
Koch – In the late 1970s and early 80s I was reading a lot about the war in the Pacific and was a new member of the Universal Ship Cancellation Society. Norman Cohen and I later started a new USCS chapter in Dallas and named it the Fleet Admiral Nimitz Chapter. I knew about Nimitz being a Texan but did not realize the impact of his leadership until I read E.B. Potter’s book Nimitz. The opening paragraph was, “In World War II, Fleet Admiral Nimitz commanded thousands of ships and aircraft and millions of men, amounting to more military power than had been wielded by all the commanders in all previous wars.” When Nimitz died in 1966, not one London newspaper carried his obituary. That was shocking. Looking at U.S. postal issues related to World War II leaders,
there were Eisenhower, Patton, Marshall, and MacArthur – all Army, no Navy! That
needed fixing.
Q – How did you plan to fix it?
Koch – On Oct. 1, 1980, I wrote a letter to Nimitz’s oldest child, Catherine N. Lay,
in Wellfleet, Mass. to see if the family was supportive of a stamp campaign. She was aware there had been attempts to put the admiral on a stamp but did not know what happened to the idea. “We would be delighted to see Dad’s face on a stamp,” she wrote back.
Q – Did you have an angle for this campaign?
Koch – With a four-year lead, the plan was simple – issue a stamp on Nimitz’s 100th birthday, Feb. 24, 1985, at the Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg, Texas, his birthplace. I started with a proposal in my stamp column on Aug. 20, 1981. An official proposal was sent to Postmaster General William F. Bolger on Nov. 25, 1982.
Q – Did you hear from PMG William Bolger?
Koch – No. A stock letter with the name of Assistant Postmaster General, Customer Services Dept., Gordon C. Morison came on Jan. 6, 1983. You know, “we receive thousands of stamp subject requests, blah, blah . . .” Of course, I was radically biased. Did they even read the letter? This was Nimitz!
Q – Was that the final effort you made?
Koch – No. I continued to write about the lack of response by the USPS in my column and received a batch of support letters. One fellow, Frank A. Driskill, had co-authored a book about Nimitz. He sent me a copy of the book and one to PMG Bolger. Even the same Nimitz proposal sent to Belmont Faries, chairman of the Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee at the time, received the standard stock letter. I had my father write Texas U.S. Senators John Tower and Lloyd Bentsen, and my boss, Lamar Hunt, write to Bolger.
They received personal responses!
Q – So the campaign began to take on legs?
Koch – Yes and no. Author James Michener was based in Austin while writing the
novel Texas. As a member of the Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee, he was scheduled to attend the Texanex-Topex show in San Antonio in June 1983. I called Washington and set up a one-on-one interview with him to talk about how he became interested in stamp collecting, areas of interest and so on. At the end of the interview I told him about the Nimitz stamp effort and lack of action. Of course, Michener was Navy. He had served in the Pacific and wrote the popular book Tales of the South Pacific. He asked for the Nimitz stamp information to be sent to him at the Barker Texas History Center at The University of Texas. He wrote back on Sept. 21, 1983: “You have put a lot of thought and
work into your idea of submitting Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz as a subject for a 1985 issue. I will present your suggestion to the Postal Committee next time we meet.” Now that was a spark!
Q – So did that cinch the deal?
Koch – No. Michener had only one vote. I was told committee members operated on a political give-and-take basis, plus stamp production has a timetable. We were running out of time. Another campaign front was open about that time by the Nimitz Center in Fredericksburg. Superintendent Doug Hubbard organized a letter-writing campaign to Washington among the museum’s supporters in early 1984. He copied me on many – Gerald Ford, Lady Bird Johnson, E.H. “Bull” Simmons, M.B. Sousa, Gen. F.X. Kelley (Commandant of the Marine Corps), William P. Hobby, Laurance S. Rockefeller, U.S. Senator John Stennis, Admiral Arleigh Burke, Michael Heyman (Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley), and U.S. Senators Lloyd Bentsen and John Tower. The American Battleship Association also got behind the Nimitz campaign in early 1984.
Q - Norman, how did you become involved?
Cohen – I was aware of the campaign from early on. When things began to wane
after the initial enthusiasm, I was able to talk to Michener in Austin to remind him about the Nimitz stamp. We were meeting with the Texas Sesquicentennial Committee to discuss the stamp to be issued in 1986. I told him we were not getting much response out of the USPS. He vowed to see about it.
Nimitz stamp designer Chris Calle, son of popular stamp designer of that day,
Paul Calle, signs covers during the first day of issue ceremony at the Nimitz Center in Fredericksburg, Texas on Feb. 22, 1985. 
Q – That sounds like a stretch run to success.
Cohen – Somewhat, but there was another hitch. Word got out that the USPS was
deferring all World War II-related stamp topics until the 50th anniversary of the war which would be in the early 1990s. The other obstacle was that with only a year remaining before Nimitz’s 100th birthday, we were concerned that if they did issue a stamp it would not be on his birthday and they might issue it in Washington DC or a location besides Texas.
Q – Did you give up at that point?
Koch – Realistically, yes. But I still sent another note to Michener that I copied to
Catherine Lay. Her response was “I like so much the reasons you gave in your letter to James Michener for honoring Dad – “the man, not as a World War II event.” Right on! He would have been pleased.”
Q – So when did you hear about the final decision?
Cohen – I received a phone call in early March 1984 telling me the stamp would be issued in Fredericksburg in February 1985.
Koch – Norman called me. He was excited and told me they were issuing the Nimitz stamp on Feb. 22, 1985, at Fredericksburg. It was a glorious shock, since less than a year remained before that date. But they did it. Even though the issue date was two days before Nimitz’s actual birthday (Feb. 24), the time and place were basically the same as proposed back in 1980.
Q - Were you involved in the First Day of Issue Ceremony?
Cohen - I worked closely with the Nimitz State Historical Park Superintendent Doug Hubbard. I proposed to create and print three official first day covers in color and a presentation folder for the event. Doug was initially very hesitant because of the expenditure. He really didn’t quite understand why anyone would want first day covers. He was pleasantly surprised when the folders and the covers sold out and raised enough money for the foundation to handle all the expenses. I enjoyed the day very much and was amazed by
the large turnout in a fairly remote location.
Koch - I was just a happy spectator, enjoyed the ceremony, and, along with others, indulged in a sausage and sauerkraut dinner at a local German pub. I sent a big package of cachets to Catherine Nimitz Lay and to my friend Bonnie Cole, who was postmaster at Nimitz, West Virginia.
Editor’s Note – TPA member Bill Halstead wrote the U.S. Postal Service press release about
the Nimitz ceremony in 1985. He conducted many first day ceremonies for the USPS during his 17-
year stay in Washington D.C. About 13 years ago Bill moved back to his hometown of Dallas and is
now a member of the Collectors Club of Dallas and the TPA. He specializes in collecting cancels
on U.S. revenues. 

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