Robert Emil Zoellner (April 26, 1932 – December 23, 2014) was an American investor and
stamp collector who was the second person to have formed a complete collection of
United States postage stamps, following
Benjamin K. Miller, who had assembled a complete collection pre-1925.
Life and work
Zoellner was born on April 26, 1932, in
Irvington, New Jersey
Irvington is a Township (New Jersey), township in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, New Jersey, United States. Per the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 61,176.
The township had the ninth-highest property tax rate ...
, to parents Emil John Zoellner and Anna Elizabeth Morton.
[Miller, Stephen]
"Robert Zoellner, Alpine Associates Founder, Dies at 82"
Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg Televi ...
, December 31, 2014. Accessed December 31, 2014. Raised in what is now known as
Elmwood Park, New Jersey
Elmwood Park is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, and is a bedroom community, bedroom suburb located from New York City. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's ...
(then East Paterson), Zoellner graduated from
Lodi High School in 1950.
[ He attended ]Lehigh University
Lehigh University (LU) is a private research university in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The university was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer and was originally affiliated with the Epis ...
, where he graduated in 1954 with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and engineering physics and played on the school's hockey team. He was a member of Lehigh's Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps
The Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC) is one of the three primary commissioning sources for officers in the United States Air Force and United States Space Force, the other two being the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) ...
program and served for two years in the United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
after graduating from college.[Levin, Jay]
"Robert E. Zoellner, investment firm founder and philanthropist from Alpine, dead at 82"
, ''The Record (Bergen County)
''The Record'' (also called ''The North Jersey Record'', ''The Bergen Record'', ''The Sunday Record'' (Sunday edition) and formerly ''The Bergen Evening Record'') is a newspaper in New Jersey, United States. Serving Bergen, Essex, Hudson and P ...
'', December 30, 2014. Accessed December 31, 2014.["Robert E. Zoellner ’54 dies at age 82"]
Lehigh University
Lehigh University (LU) is a private research university in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The university was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer and was originally affiliated with the Epis ...
, December 31, 2014. Accessed December 31, 2014.
Following his military service, Zoellner went into the investment field, establishing the firm of E.J. Roberts in 1958 before joining Edwards & Hanly, a firm that named him in 1964 as its managing partner.[ Together with his wife Victoria, he formed the investment firm Alpine Associates in 1976, which focuses on merger arbitrage, bankruptcy and other investment strategies.][ By the time of his death, the firm based in ]Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
Englewood Cliffs is a borough in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, whose population at the 2010 United States census was 5,281.[Cresskill, New Jersey
Cresskill is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 8,573,][Alpine
Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to:
Places Europe
* Alps, a European mountain range
** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range
Australia
* Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village
* Alpine National Pa ...]
in the 1980s, where he was the borough's largest individual property owner, loaned heavy equipment to the borough's Department of Public Works and donated funds to the Alpine Public School District
The Alpine Public School District is a community public school district serving students in kindergarten through eighth grade in the Borough of Alpine in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States.
As of the 2018–19 school year, the distric ...
. Alpine mayor Paul Tomasko described Zoellner as "one of our foremost residents".[
As a benefactor to Lehigh University, Zoellner and his wife contributed $6 million towards the construction of the Zoellner Arts Center and a physical science building.][ Zoellner had also contributed towards the establishment of a model train show held annually at the ]New York Botanical Garden
The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a botanical garden at Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. Established in 1891, it is located on a site that contains a landscape with over one million living plants; the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, ...
.[
Zoellner began collecting stamps as a child, but only began building his collection in earnest in 1985. He completed the collection in 1996 and it was auctioned off in 1998.
He is succeeded by his grandson Robert "Bobby" Zoellner, who makes riddim dubstep under the alias "Send Help!".
]
Stamp collection
Like many philatelists Zoellner collected stamps as a child and had attempted to fill his entire stamp album of United States stamps. However, many US stamps are quite rare, and he eventually put the album aside. His interest was rekindled in 1984, and in 1985 he approached Scott Trepel of Siegel Auctions and asked whether it was possible to assemble a complete collection. At the time all of the major grill rarities were coming on the market and Zoellner had both the "means and the inclination" (to quote the Weill brothers) to obtain them. He purchased the 1 cent Z grill
The Benjamin Franklin Z Grill, or simply "Z-Grill", is a 1-cent postage stamp issued by the United States Postal Service in February 1868 depicting Benjamin Franklin. While stamps of this design were the common 1-cent stamps of the 1860s, the Z ...
, the rarest US stamp, in November 1986 for $418,000, setting a new record for a US stamp sale.
In addition to singles of each type, Zoellner also bought strips, block
Block or blocked may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting
* Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting
* W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...
s, and covers. Since his original album had no spaces for these, he moved to a system of computer-generated pages designed for the additional items.
By 1996, only a few spaces remained to be filled. Zoellner accepted an invitation to exhibit the collection at Anphilex '96 and scrambled to complete the collection. The last stamp he acquired was the 30c gray black stamp of 1873, given as a gift by one of Zoellner's friends.
On October 8–10, 1998, the entire collection was auctioned off. Siegel's auction catalog was a 391-page work that included extensive description and documentation of the items, many of which were the "finest known" of their type, and sold for prices well above their nominal values. The 1c Z grill went to Donald Sundman of Mystic Stamp Company
Mystic Stamp Company is an American, employee-owned stamp dealer founded in 1923 by Lawrence K. Shaver (1903 – September 23, 1990). The company is headquartered where it was founded, in Camden, New York. It specializes in the buying and selling ...
for $935,000.
References and sources
;References
;Sources
* ''United States Postage Stamps, The Robert Zoellner Collection'' (Siegel, 1998)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zoellner, Robert
1932 births
2014 deaths
American philatelists
Lehigh University alumni
People from Alpine, New Jersey
People from Cresskill, New Jersey
People from Elmwood Park, New Jersey
People from Irvington, New Jersey