Kurt Weishaupt

Kurt Weishaupt
1913-2004



Kurt Weishaupt founded Kurt Weishaupt & Co., Inc. in 1941.His company was an internationally known stamp wholesale firm specializing in philately of the 20th century. Kurt served as president of the ASDA from 1953-1954 and was a life member for over 30 years. He was Vice President of the International Federation of Stamp Dealers Associations for well over twenty years and, when he retired from the stamp business in the late 1990s, he was an Honorary Vice President of this prestigious worldwidfe organization.

Well known inside and outside philately for his generosity, Kurt began his philanthropic missions in the 1960s after having established his large and diverse international retail and wholesale stamp business. His accomplishments, among many others, have included: Trustee of Booth Memorial Medical Center in New York City beginning back in 1970—then after his first wife, Trude, passed away, Kurt built the Trude Weishaupt Memorial Satellite Dialysis Center in that hospital in her memory. He also served as President of the Flushing Y.M.C.A.; President of the Rotary Club of Flushing, New York; Chairman of the Board of the Gift of Life Program; Co-Chairman of the Stamp and Coin Divisions of the United Jewish Appeal and the March of Dimes; Co-Chairman of the National Advisory Board of the Salvation Army; and founder of the Trude Weishaupt Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse. Altogether, he supported more than forty humanitarian organizations. He was also deeplyt involved in philatelic pursuits and his giving extended into manyh corners of the hobby on an anonymous basis.

Kurt and his first wife were forced to flee his native Germany and travel across Europe for four years to escape Nazi persecution. After spending eleven months in a concentration camp, he escaped and was reunited with his wife. A friend who lived in Uruguay, lent them $4,000, the amount requested as a guarantee by the American Consul in Lisbon, to enable them to gain passage to the United States in 1941.

In 1986, Kurt married Ethel Faye and continued to live in Flushing, N.Y. He passed away in 2004 at the age of 90. Obituaries appearing in many newspapers listed him simply as, “Philanthropist.”