Henry joined the NAPEX Board as a fellow Director.  He helped us with our 1998 show that season.  For the next 7 shows (1999 through 2005), he was THE Society Coordinator.   His job was to convince stamp societies to hold their annual conventions at NAPEX.   This was an ideal job for Henry since he and his wife traveled to many stamp shows together where he was either an exhibitor or a judge.  His demeanor and personality made him a perfect ambassador for us.  He accomplished this task with distinction and most of our "out-year" schedule (2008-2011) was signed up under his auspices.

We did not have a NAPEX show in 2006 because of the international show held in Washington, DC.  Henry was disappointed that his top Czech exhibit was not accepted.  However, his exhibit was the top replacement in case an 8-frame exhibit did not show up.  Sure enough, there was a cancellation, and the show committee mounted his exhibit which enabled him to more thoroughly enjoy the show as an exhibitor.  His exhibit also won a Gold medal. 

NAPEX resumed in 2007 and Henry returned as a Director Emeritus.  This enabled him to exhibit at NAPEX for the first time in about a decade.  On May 31, by the luck-of-the-draw, I was assigned to help him mount his exhibit. He believed it was his 5^th best exhibit and he did not expect to win a gold medal (it got a vermeil).  He just wanted to share the material with his fellow collectors.  When he picked up his exhibit on the closing Sunday, we did not know it would be the last time we would see him.

I'm not a collector of his specialty but I am aware of his outstanding scholarship and that his legacy to philately will be the articles and books he published in his field.  He was an ardent and active member of the Society for Czechoslovak Philately and brought their annual convention to NAPEX 2002.  NAPEX will miss him.  However, we will always remember him as the ultimate gentlemen in every aspect of the word and in every single thing he did.

- Doug Lehmann

His obituary, as published in The Washington Post, follows:

Henry Hahn, 79, an engineer who ran a research laboratory at Melpar, died of a heart attack June 7 at his home in Fairfax.

Mr. Hahn was born in February of 1928 in Brno, Czechoslovakia,  He and his family escaped their Nazi-occupied homeland, arriving in New York in 1947.  He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received a master's degree in metallurgical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1953, and did postgraduate work at Columbia University.

He was a chief project engineer in development metallurgy at Curtiss-Wright, working on aircraft and missile design and propulsion systems.  in 1963, Mr. Hahn moved to Northern Virginia to work at Melpar, at the time a division of Westinghouse Airbrake.

In addition to performing basic and applied research, he patented and developed the Irreversible Warm Up Indicator for frozen foods and NASA astronaut foods.  His patent for a porous coating for implants has been used throughout the world in hip, knee, joint, and dental implants.

He retired in 1995.

Mr. Hahn wrote more than 30 professional papers and held seven patents in composites, coatings, and implants.  He was an expert witness in areas of failure analysis, patent infringement and product liability.  He was a member of the American Society for Metals, the American Society for Testing materials, the American Welding Society and The International Standards Organization.

He also served as a volunteer adviser on aircraft restoration at the Paul D. Garver restoration facility of the Smithsonian National Air and  Space Museum.

Mr. Hahn was an editor, exhibitor and judge of stamp exhibits and was internationally recognized as an expert in Czechoslovak philately.  He was also a member of the Czech Torah Network, which, after retrieving Hebrew Torahs that had been confiscated by the Nazis, restored and distributed them to congregations throughout the world.  Mr. Hahn was a member of the American Society for Czechoslovakia and recently published a postal history of Telc in the Czech Republic.

He was instrumental in bringing the "neighbors Who Disappeared" exhibit (a project by non-Jewish schoolchildren in the Czech Republic documenting those lost in the Holocaust) from the Czech Republic to the United State for a national tour.

Survivors include his wife of 54 years, Marilyn Hahn of Fairfax; two children, Anita C. Thornton of Leesburg, VA, and Jeffrey S. Hahn of West Chester, Pa.; and three grandchildren.

- Patricia Sullivan, The Washington Post