October 18, 2012 – The American Numismatic Society announces the honorees for the 2013 Dinner Gala. The recipient of the Trustees’ Award is ANS President, Roger S. Siboni. The recipient of the Distinguished Service Award is Richard B. Witschonke. Mr. Siboni and Mr. Witschonke will be honored on Thursday, January 10th, 2013 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.
Each year the Annual Dinner Gala raises thousands of dollars for the American Numismatic Society. Gala proceeds are put to effective use in furthering the mission and building upon the rich traditions of the ANS. Highlights of the evening will include a live auction, entertainment by comic David Deeble, dinner, and dancing to the music of the Lester Lanin Orchestra.
Past Gala honorees of the Trustees Award include such notable numismatists as Mr. Harlan J. Berk, Mr. Ira Goldberg, Mr. Larry Goldberg, Mr. Victor England, Jr., Mr. Harvey Stack, Mr. Donald G. Partrick, Mr. Q. David Bowers, and Mr. Chester L. Krause. The first Distinguished Service Award was presented at the 2012 Dinner Gala to ANS Life Fellow Frederick G. Withington.
Mr. Roger S. Siboni, will be honored for his extraordinary vision, support and leadership during his tenure on the Board of Trustees as Treasurer, Vice-President and President. Mr. Siboni joined the ANS in 1995, became a Life Associate in 2004, was elected a Fellow of the Society in 2003 and is one of the founding members of the Augustus B. Sage Society. He has contributed his time and skill on a variety of Board committees, held the position of Treasurer from 2004-2005, First Vice President from 2005-2007, and ANS President from 2008 to the present.
Through his guidance and expertise, Mr. Siboni saw the ANS through tumultuous and exciting times including the selling of the William Street building in lower Manhattan and relocating the Society to its present location on Varick Street. It had been only four years earlier that the ANS sold its century-old Audubon Terrace location in upper Manhattan and moved to William Street. The sale of the William Street building and move to Varick Street proved to be a fiscal asset as the financial and real estate crisis took hold in 2009. In the four years that followed, Mr. Siboni lead the ANS into a secure financial footing – building the endowments and balancing the budget. He focused on advancing the Society’s mission including the development and implementation of the ANS’ digitization projects and on-line research tools, MANTIS, DONUM, and ARCHER, extending the Society’s outreach to its members and the numismatic community.
Mr. Siboni has been a generous donor to the ANS collection, programs, galas, annual appeals and variety of funds that support the ANS mission. In 2009 the ANS Gallery was named in honor of his contributions to the Hudson Sq. Building Fund. Roger has also worked as an active trustee for the Central Park Con servancy, the San Francisco Asian Art Museum, the San Francisco Exploratorium and was Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Walter A. Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. He was a contributor and exhibitor to the ANS exhibition 100 Years of Solicitude: Collecting by the New York Numismatic Club.
A specialist in Colonial American coinage, he is an associate editor of the C4 Newsletter, and has written several articles on the subject including the 2006 Coinage of the America’s Conference (COAC) proceedings article Mark Newby and his St. Patrick halfpence co-authored with Vicken Yegparian. He has contributed articles to the Colonial Newsletter (CNL), The C4 Newsletter, and The Asylum. He authored the C4 publication The First New Jersey Symposium, a 131 page hard-bound compilation with transcript, condition census, photos and plates of the proceedings of the symposium held 20-21 April 1991, and is the author of the forthcoming joint C4 and ANS publication Colonial Copper Coinage of New Jersey.
Mr. Richard (“Rick”) B. Witschonke, is the second recipient of the ANS Distinguished Service Award given in recognition of outstanding contributions of an ANS volunteer or staff member.
Rick’s ANS Membership began in 1969. He was nominated a Fellow in 1993 and became a Life member in 1996. From 1999-2002 he served for a term on the ANS Council (Board of Trustees). After a 30-year career in the field of technology consulting, Rick joined the ANS curatorial staff in 2003, first as a curatorial assistant then, since March 2006, as a curatorial associate. He served as a member of the Library Committee and is co-director of the ANS Eric P. Newman Graduate Summer Seminar. In January 2006 he served as Chairperson for the annual ANS Gala and the Library Chair book auction.
Specializing in Roman Republic and provincial Roman coinage of that era, Rick has authored and co-authored numerous articles, has edited books on the subject, and has written on other topics of interest for the ANS Magazine and the American Journal of Numismatics.
In recent years Rick has been a major donor to the ANS collections. His ongoing curatorial research and effort with the digitization project and other ANS programs has been done with a joyous and exuberant manner and serves as an inspiration to the staff and volunteers who work with him.
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