The S_zekula Family of Stamp Dealers

Frank Sekula (1901–1972) was born as Franz Szekula in Budapest on March 24, 1901. On October 17, 1917 and still a minor he became a naturalized Swiss citizen of Udligenswil together with his father Julius. As the youngest in the family he was also the last to enter the stamp trade. In February 1921 he left Lucerne and moved to New York City, where he opened his own stamp business at Nassau Street 97, probably in 1922. In June 1926 he submitted his first declaration of intention to become a US citizen. However, travelling back and forth between the USA and Switzerland he kept close ties with his family in Lucerne. It is not clear why Frank eventually decided to return to Switzerland for a more permanent stay, but it is a fact that he abandoned the stamp business in New York in 1928 and joined the management of Béla’s stamp wholesale company as a manager with signatory rights (Prokura) in January 1929, thus well before Black Tuesday, the stock market crash of October 29 that marked the beginning of the great depression. In his function as chief clerk he supervised the controversial reprinting of the Ethiopian 1919 Animals and Rulers issue in Bern on behalf of his brother — the only time Frank’s name ever became loosely connected to a scandal. On April 10, 1930 he married Claudia De Renard at London, and on November 26 of the same year their son Frank Jr. was born. In April 1933 he founded the Frasek AG in Lucerne. Sole board member was initially Claudia Sekula, housewife from Udligenswil, replaced by her husband in August of the following year. In April 1935 the Frasek AG moved to Lugano renaming itself to Frasek AG Lugano (Frasek Inc. Lugano). In January 1937 Frasek Inc. moved its headquarters to 47 Martine Avenue, White Plains, New York, and became the Frasek Company. One year later the office in Lugano was closed, leaving Europe for good.
In the years to come, the Frasek Company became a household name in the mail-order business. Frasek’s newspaper ads for cheap approvals were everywhere, and Frank Sekula was reportedly the first stamp dealer to also place radio commercials.
Over the years Frank showed an increasing preference for using his full double-barrelled surname Sekula De Renard until about 1958 when he and his wife began to abbreviate Sekula to S. or even omit it entirely. Frank Derenard, as he is listed on the U.S. Social Security Death Index, died at home in White Plains on September 29, 1972, at the age of 71. In September 1978, after more than four extremely successful decades in the stamp business, Frasek Company was sold to Australia’s Seven Seas Stamp Company. The Frasek Company continued to operate in White Plains under the familiar name for two more years until it was finally dissolved in late December 1980 — making it the longest-running business undertaking of any of the Sekula brothers.