Jeffrey M. Coney
Webmaster & GWMSC Cachet Chair (2020–Present), Hagerstown, MD
Professional Background
Mr. Coney has over forty years of experience in Information Technology and Cyber Security, supporting the private sector and U.S. Government.
As a global network engineer and consultant, he developed solutions and operations for Global 1000 GE customers and international telecommunications and data networks and computing facilities, over a fourteen-year period.
As a government contractor, he has served in Program Manager and Cybersecurity Subject Matter Expert roles, leading large programs and is a problem solver, working with and supporting the federal government, federal law enforcement, U.S. military, and elements of the IC. These include the Depts. of Homeland Security, Energy, and Commerce, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Federal Aviation Administration, the DoD Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Department of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, Dept. of Energy / National Nuclear Security Administration and others.
As a consultant and subject matter expert, Mr. Coney has authored documents and manuals for the federal government ranging from one-page quick reference guides, papers, and policies to a twenty-four-hundred-page operations manual. He has also created IT and security guides, cybersecurity training materials, and other products for the private sector.
Home Life
Born in Williamsport, PA, to a family of six children, he lived in York, PA, for ten years. He is married to Eileen, the love of his life, and they have four children and four grandchildren (so far) and live in a grand old Victorian home in Hagerstown, MD.
Jeff’s the family fix-it guy. If he can’t fix it, it can’t be fixed. Although he likes being able to fix things, he doesn’t like having to fix things. It’s a family trait.
Stamp Collecting
Jeff started collecting when he was 11. He had a paper route in 1972 and delivered 140 papers for an income of $11 a week. While flipping through the back of Boys’ Life magazine, an ad caught his eye from the H.E. Harris Company for an incredible deal on a package of stamps. It was either that or the plans to build his own submarine. Stamps won.
He asked his dad if it was a scam. His dad told him he’d gotten a similar deal from H.E. Harris in the late 1930s, and it was legit. Jeff started out with a worldwide collection, but after finding a set of Scott’s catalogues in the local library, he was overwhelmed, and his dad gave him some great advice. Start small and expand later, and don’t spend much until you know if it’s something you’re going to stick with. The scope was narrowed to U.S. postage, later expanded to the back of the book. Jeff now runs several philatelic websites, active in online philatelic communities and is a member of the following philatelic organizations:
- American Philatelic Society
- American Topical Association
- U.S. Philatelic Classics Society
- George Washington Masonic Stamp Club (Cachet Chair and Webmaster)
- U.S. Stamp Society
- Perfin Club
- Precancel Stamp Society
- Masonic Stamp Club of NY (Surviving Member – Webmaster)
- ATA Masonic Study Unit
Masonic
Jeff comes from a Masonic family going back many generations — his father, his father’s father, and several more generations of fathers and uncles before them. In 1991, he decided to join, and was initiated, passed, and raised in Pentalpha Lodge #194, Germantown, MD.
His only regret is that his father wasn’t alive to see it and would have liked very much to sit in lodge with him. Today, he wears his father’s lapel pin, his grandfather’s ring, a pair of cufflinks, and a pocket watch chain and fob from two great-granduncles to lodge.
He served as Worshipful Master of Pentalpha 194 in 2002 and again in 2006.