Curator of National Post Museum dies

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WASHINGTON, Jan 19, 2007 (UPI via COMTEX) -- The curator of the National Post Museum in Washington, W.W. Wilson Hulme II, has died at the age of 60.

Hulme had a heart attack Jan. 10 during a trip to Florida for the museum, the Washington Post reported.

A graduate of the Naval Academy, Hulme served as an officer in the Navy from 1968 to 1976. He was an executive for food companies in New Jersey, including Nabisco, and lived in Morristown.

Hulme began collecting stamps as a child and was a longtime member of philatelic groups and an expert on 19th century U.S. stamps. He became curator of the Post Museum, which is part of the Smithsonian, in 2002.

As head of the museum, Hulme created exhibits that showed the links between mail and everyday life, including mail boxes damaged by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He also gave philately some glamour by exhibiting Queen Elizabeth's stamp collection and acquiring John Lennon's boyhood collection.