Milton John Lear possesses every stamp ever issued by the United Nations. “You can’t collect the world—too many countries,” Lear says, who also has some 3,000 U.S. stamps and a smattering of foreign ones. The Los Angeles resident has been collecting stamps since 1929, when he was a 12- year-old Boy Scout. After serving in the Army in the South Pacific and in India, he traveled a bit more and always made a stop at the philatelic bureau in the post offices of major cities. When the United Nations Postal Administration began issuing stamps in 1951, Lear started the collection he now keeps mostly in binders at home. Issues of universal concern are in the stamps, which the U.N. has produced in more than a thousand varieties with themes such as peacekeeping, world health, the environment and human rights. The stamps are issued for commemorative purposes as well as for the U.N.’s own postage use. Lear, a retired investment counselor, doesn’t view his impressive collection as an investment. While he continues to add to his stock a couple times a year, Lear sees philately as simply “an interesting pastime.”
EMILY HITE is Class of 2007.
