In 2015 I signed up for Worldloppet. Worldloppet is a worldwide Nordic ski marathon series. The premise is pretty simple: Finish 10 ski marathons in 10 different countries on two different continents in your lifetime and you become a Worldloppet Master.  Worldloppet was founded in Sweden in 1978. “Loppet” means “run” or “race” in Swedish. The famous Swedish ski marathon Vasaloppet was likely the namesake.

Each country where Nordic skiing exists has one qualifying race.  This year I decided to try to knock out two races on each side of a week. It turned out that this would be possible in Estonia with the Tartu Marathon on February 18 and Finland with the Finlandia Hiihto Marathon on February 26.

I flew from Denver to Helsinki, Finland on February 16 and met my nephew Alexander who had flown over from Norway to do the Estonia race with me. We took the Tallin boat from Helsinki to Tallin and made the two hour drive by car to Tartu. As it happens Tartu is the host city for the Mare Balticum Stamp Show in July of this year. With a focus on the marathon, we did not have a chance to explore any philatelic connections while in Tartu. The Tartu marathon was a great experience. At 63 KM it is one of the longer Worldloppet races, though by no means the longest (that distinction goes to Vasaloppet in Sweden at 90 KM which I completed in 2020). It had been raining with mild temperatures in Tartu in the days leading up to the race. On the race day the sun came out and it was a beautiful day. However, the ski tracks had suffered, and they were very icy. This led to a very fast course, and I finished in a respectable 4 hours and 35 minutes.

With a few days to spare until the next race, I flew back to my hometown of Oslo, Norway, a mere hour flight from Helsinki, to spend some time visiting friends and family and to recover before my next marathon. As luck would have it, I was able to attend my first in-person meeting with Oslo Filatelist Klubb (OFK) who happened to have their bi-monthly meeting the evening I arrived. I have been a member of OFK for several years but typically only visit Norway during Christmas and summer, outside of the regular meeting season. It was great attending and meeting several members in person for the first time. They have a new meeting space as of 2024, in the Ice Skating Museum, inside the Frogner Stadium Ice Skating Arena. Next time I plan to visit the museum during opening hours as it looked like they have some amazing displays.

The next morning, I made my rounds to pick up auction lots accumulated over the past few months. I got a little worried when Skanfil rolled out a big moving box on wheels. How was I going to get all this content into my suitcase and back to the US? Fortunately, it all consolidated well. While I had to leave behind a few empty albums, I was able to get my new acquistions safely back home. I also visited with Erik Olafsen at Oslo Frimerke og Myntauksjoner as well as Hans Solbakken with Samlerbørsen, picking up lots from their latest respective auctions. It is great to see that there is no shortage of stamp auctions that are well attended with competitive bidding. One of my favorite auction object types are the “leftover-lots” where you don’t know exactly what you are getting. The excitement of going through a box full of surprises is comparable to how I felt at Christmas Eve as a child. These lots did not disappoint.

On Thursday February 22 I flew back to Helsinki, got my rental car and drove the 100 km north to Lahti. Lahti is Finland’s ski capital, dominated by their modern ski stadium and triple ski jumps. As with Estonia, the rain was pouring down, and I was somewhat concerned about the skiing condition. Fortunately, most of the Nordic countries have received unusually large amounts of snow this winter, so Lahti’s trails were able to withstand the rain. On Friday I had the opportunity to tour the Lahti Ski Museum which is highly recommended for those interested in skiing history. Particularly impressive to me, was a ski dated to approximately 6000 years ago. They looked a bit heavier than my modern carbon-fiber skis, but probably better suited than mine for hunting moose in deep snow ca. 4000 B.C.

While waiting inside for the start on Saturday morning, I spotted a table with some distinguished looking gentlemen. It turns out they were there representing the Lahti Stamp Club, offering commemorative covers from the ski marathon, as well as ski-related postcards and stamps.

I finished the 62 KM race in five hours and six minutes. The wet snow made the course a bit slower than the Estonia race. It was a beautiful course circling through a mix of forest, open spaces, and small communities surrounding Lahti. Start and finish was at the Lahti Ski Stadium. Food and drinks were provided at food stations every 10 KM or so. All nutritious except when at the last stop I chugged down what I thought was a Finnish energy drink. It tasted like beer because that is exactly what it was.

After the race, did I rush to try my first sauna in the motherland of saunas? Of course not. I rushed back to the Lahti Stamp Club booth where I purchased the commemorative cover and some postcards.

I have a habit of carrying a few “good luck stamps” in my fanny pack on these marathons. With me on this race my stamps included the four Norway stamps from the 1966 Ski World Championship. I subsequently donated these to my new friend who in turn gave me a nice commemorative cover from the 1978 Lahti World Championship.

One more semi-philatelic connection: When you sign up for Worldloppet you get a Worldloppet passport. Upon completion of each race, you get a rubber stamp in your passport. While not postmarks, they look like postmarks and are just as fun to collect and gives a sense of accomplishment.

So, there you go. Skiing and stamp collecting may have more in common than you think. These were my 7th and 8th Worldloppet marathons respectively. Only two more to go.

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When I met Cheryl for the first time at the Great American Stamp Show in August 2023 in Cleveland, OH, I also learned a less known fact about her: Cheryl descends from Norwegian immigrants and is very proud of her Norwegian heritage.  She subsequently shared her Norwegian family story with me. This story was first published in Norsk Filatelistisk Tidskrift (the premier Norwegian philatelic journal) issue 7, 2023. Since then, several people have asked me if  I could translate this story to English. By popular demand, here is that story as shared with me by Cheryl.

Cheryl’s great-grandfather Thomas Johannesen (1854-1944) left Sandøya, near Tvedestrand, in 1889. Like many of the men who lived on Sandøya, he had been a sailor and worked as a ship’s carpenter. When he returned from a voyage, he discovered that his wife had died, and the next year his four-year-old daughter drowned. The widower summoned all his courage, determined to reinvent his life by emigrating to America, first with his brothers and later with his two children. They sailed for New York on the steamship Thingvalla. In New York, he met Sophie Olive Hendricksen (1858-1931), a young woman from Øyestad who had worked in Arendal for two years before emigrating with her brother in 1887. They married in the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brooklyn, New York. Thomas worked as a foreman in a shipyard in Hoboken, New Jersey. They had three daughters, but the first died.

Thomas learned of an island in Wisconsin that reminded Scandinavians of their homeland. The hills and harbors lured Norwegians, Danes, and Icelanders to Washington Island. Located in Lake Michigan, the island offered both fishing and farming opportunities. In 1895, Thomas bought thirty acres on the island sight unseen. He traveled there by boat with his family and two other Norwegian immigrant families. They built a house the first year and later a barn. Cheryl’s grandfather George (1896-1988) was their first child born on Washington Island. Two more followed. The family farmed while Thomas traveled to work in the shipbuilding trade. Sometime after arrival in America, Thomas simplified his last name to Johnson, but on Washington Island there already was a Danish man named Thomas Johnson. So, Thomas took the middle initial “N.” This distinguished him as Thomas “the Norwegian” Johnson.

Many of the Johnson descendants, including Cheryl, are proud of their Norwegian heritage. Washington Island continues its tradition of celebrating Scandinavian heritage and even has a Norwegian stavkirke. Cheryl had the opportunity to go back to Norway and visit Sandøya in 2007. She and her niece were able to tour the family log home. They brought back jewelry for their Aust Agder bunads from nearby Arendal. A bunad is a traditional Norwegian formal attire and each region of Norway has their own design. Cheryl gets to showcase her Aust Agder Bunad back home as  Washington Island has a Scandinavian folk dance festival each year. Cheryl and her mom help out by serving Scandinavian food at the luncheon.

As a philatelist, Cheryl collects airship mail and postcards, including the Wellman expedition in Spitzbergen and the Norge flight over the North Pole. She is a member of the Scandinavian Collectors Club in the USA. Over the years she has published several books on philately. Here most recent book, “U.S. Zeppelin and Airship Mail Flights” was issued in 2021 and can be ordered through APS (https://classic.stamps.org/Publications). In addition to doing research and writing, Cheryl is also a decorated philatelic exhibitor. She has exhibited extensively both in the US and Internationally. In 2006 she was featured in the Court of Honor at the 2006 World Philatelic Exhibition in Washington D.C. Her many awards include Aerophilatelic Hall of Fame, Federation Internationale des Societes Aerophilateliques, gold medal for outstanding contribution to aerophilately, and a Newberry Award for contributions to Chicagoland philately.

I feel very fortunate to have met Cheryl and I am thrilled to have connected with another Norwegian philatelist here in the US.

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To me, he was first and foremost “Onkel Per”. He was my dad’s uncle, married to my grandfather’s younger sister, Laura Helene Brande. As a young child I vividly remember many visits to their home in Holmenkollveien 10 at Smedstad in Oslo. The smell of pipe tobacco was always in the air. There was usually one or several stamp albums open on the coffee table. Yet, at that time, I was too young to understand the significance of his collection. I just new his hobby was “stamp collecting”. As a physician, he was an ear, nose and throat specialist, who often saw patients in his home. I recall more than one incident where my parents brought me to see “Onkel Per” because of an ailment. When I was a little older he also planted the seed that would open the door to me becoming a philatelist myself. Around the age of 10 or so, he gave me a copy of Norgeskatalogen 1976. Little did I know at the time that this was a catalog for which he himself was one of the editors. It was, as it turned out, the last catalog he was involved with as an editor. I also recall visiting the Norwex exhibit in Norway in 1980 where he exhibited in the honor class. Yet, I regret that at that age I did not have the maturity, insight, or knowledge to ask him more about his stamp collection.

Per Gellein was born in Kristiania (now Oslo) on April 2, 1899. The eldest son of  Mathias Fredrik Fyhn Gellein (1867-1945) and Valerie Eugenie Severen (1869-1956), he grew up at Frogner, in Oslo, first in Elisenbergveien, and later a few blocks away in Erling Skjalgsonsgate. It is safe to assume that the Gelleins were likely an upper middle-class family. Frogner, was then as it is today, one of the more prominent neighborhoods in Oslo. His father was an administrator in the Norwegian Navy. According to the census, their household included a live-in housekeeper. 

The early 1900s was a time when philately was on the rise world-wide. Growing up in an affluent part of town with a father working for the marine, it is likely that he was exposed to stamps and the idea of collecting them from an early age. What we do know is that he joined Kristiania Filatelistsklubb (now Oslo Filatelist Klubb or OFK) as soon as he was of legal age to join, which was 21 at the time. As such, it is safe to assume he joined OFK in the spring of 1920.

Per Gellein as a student 1917. Public domain photograph – Gustav Borgen.

In the census of 1923 he is still listed as living at his parents home with profession listed as Medical Student. In 1924 he moves to Skei in Surnadalen in the western part of Norway for his medical residency. It is there that he meets my great-aunt, Laura Helene Brande. Laura was a pharmacist in her childhood town of Kristiansund, the nearest big city to Surnadalen. It is not unlikely they met through the pharmacy at which Laura worked. They were married in Trondheim on June 11, 1926. He returned to Oslo in 1929 to receive his medical degree. He an Laura continued to live in Skei until 1932 after which they permanently relocated to Oslo. They lived in a beautiful home in Holmenkollveien 10 at Smedstad in Oslo. I do not know if they purchased this home immediately upon relocating to Oslo or if they lived someplace else first. By the time my father moved to Oslo in 1947 for dental studies he rented a room in their house in Holmenkollveien, so they were definitely there by this time.

Per and Laura Gellein during their time in Surnadalen. Family photo.

While his career as a doctor is a story in itself, this story will focus on his life as a philatelist. From his return to Oslo in 1932 it is said he had perfect attendance at OFK meetings. With the kind research assistance of OFK Librarian Kjell Åge Johansen, we have gained a few glimpses into some of his presentations in OFK meetings:

• 1936: Presentation on Spanish History and Spanish Stamps
• September 21, 1953: Presentation on German Kingdoms
• November 19, 1962: Presentation on Norwegian stamps printed by Centraltrykkeriet and Knudsen.

In the late 50s and early 60s he is also frequently listed as a judge in club philatelic trivia contests.

Over the years he held numerous offices. For years, he represented OFK at the annual meetings of Norsk Filatlistforbund (NFF -The Norwegian Philatelic Association, equivalent to our American Philatelic Society). For a while, during the difficult years of World War 2, he served as President of NFF and presided over their annual meetings. He was an active researcher and writer on a variety of philatelic topics. He was very involved with the publication of “Håndbok Over Norske Frimerker” (Handbook of Norwegian Stamps), released in three volumes throughout the 1960s. He served on the committee for Norgeskatalogen, the definitive catalog for Norwegian stamps, from the 1960s through 1976.

He was recognized with most awards that can be bestowed in Norwegian philatelic circles, including honorary member of Oslo Filatelist Klubb and Norsk Posthistorisk Selskap (Society of Norwegian Postal History). He received the club’s distinguished “Det Gylne Posthorn” order and NFF’s “Sølvløven”, as well as “Den Blå Løve” from Bergen Filatalist Klubb. He was also one of very few honored with the distinguished “Andressen-Dethloff” award.

Selection of Dr. Per Gellein mint Norway Skilling Blocks from Germeten auction catalog 1982. Courtesy of Kjell Germeten A/S.

Besides being an expert on Norwegian stamps, Dr. Gellein’s collection interest included many other areas including German Kingdoms, Denmark, and France.

Portions of his Norwegian collection was exhibited in the honor class at the Norwex International Stamp Show in 1980. Sadly, it would be the last time Dr. Gellein exhibited and the last opportunity for the world to see his stamps. Shortly thereafter he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Knowing that the end was likely near, he arranged for his collection to be sold through Kjell Germeten in 1982.

Laura and Per Gellein in the 1970s. Photo Credit: Bent Brande.

Per Gellein passed away on January 8, 1983. In his obituary, his friend Leiv Brecke wrote the following:

“Per Gellein was a wonderful human being, a loyal friend and club member. He was always willing to lend a hand when it came to questions about stamps and collections and to help others when they were stuck with a challenging (philatelic) problem. He will be deeply missed.”

After Dr. Gellein’s passing, his wife Laura donated NOK 100,000.00 to Norsk Posthistorisk Selskap (Society for Norwegian Postal History). This was the foundation for the Dr. Per Gellein Memorial Fund, which to this day provides funding for the support of research and publications on Norwegian Postal History.

I was glad I had the opportunity know “Onkel Per”, even if only for a short time. I am reminded of him on a daily basis. My wife Anne and I were married a few years after his widow Laura passed away in 1990. She had expressed a wish that we should inherit their wedding bands. As such, Anne wears Laura’s ring, and I wear his. If that ring could only speak of all the rare stamps it has touched through the years…

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