Paul Calle, Postage Stamp Designer, Is Dead at 82

Paul Calle, a commercial artist whose most famous work was no bigger than a postage stamp, died on Thursday in Stamford, Conn.

Mr. Calle, one of the most highly regarded stamp designers in USA, was 82.

A longtime Stamford resident, Mr. Calle designed more than 40 United States stamps, licked by generations of postwar Americans. He was best known for the 10-cent stamp, commissioned by NASA and issued in 1969, commemorating the Apollo 11 moon landing that year.

His other stamps include ones honoring Gen. Douglas MacArthur (1971), Robert Frost (1974), the International Year of the Child (1979), Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan (1980), Frederic Remington (1981), Pearl S. Buck (1983), the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (1984) and folk-art carousel horses (1988 and again, with new artwork, in 1995).

Mr. Calle's work has been exhibited at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City and elsewhere.

With his son Chris, he designed two 1994 stamps - a 29-cent first-class stamp and a $9.95 express-mail stamp - commemorating the moon landing's 25th anniversary. Father and son also collaborated on stamps for Sweden, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and the United Nations.