USCF Awards 1979-92

According to the laws of nature, this post should have been titled 'USCF Awards 1992'. Just like the recent post 'USCF Awards 1990' (see link below), I could find no evidence that the awards were announced that year and would have been forced to fall back on subsequent yearbook compilations.

That makes this post a good point to pause the series on 'USCF Awards' and move on to a different topic best handled by a series of posts. A summary of the posts in the award series is shown below. I like summaries because they make my work easier if and when I ever come back to the topic.

• 2021-03-12: U.S. Chess Cities of the Year
• 2021-03-19: The U.S. Chess Awards • List of different awards and year first awarded
• 2021-03-26: U.S. Chess Service Awards • Distinguished Service, Meritorious Service, Special Service, Scholastic Service
• 2021-04-02: The First USCF Awards • 1979, 1980
• 2021-04-09: More Early USCF Awards • 1981, 1982, 1983
• 2021-04-16: USCF Awards 1984-85
• 2021-04-23: USCF Awards 1986-87
• 2021-04-30: USCF Awards 1988-89
• 2021-05-07: USCF Awards 1990
• 2021-05-14: USCF Awards 1991

While I was wandering through the various issues raised by that series of posts, I noted a couple of anomalies. The first anomaly is pictured below.

Source: Doyle's Scrapbook #1 - Toms River Chess Club [PDF p.12]

'Doyle' is Steve Doyle who himself received a Distinguished Service Award in 1990. The certificate says,

'1977 Distinguished Service Award
to
Toms River Chess Club
in recognition of participation in the
USCF Builder membership drive and National Chess Day'

The Distinguished Service Award represented by the certificate predates the start of the USCF awards by two years. The second anomaly is from the August 1978 Chess Life, which announced,

1979 Yearbook in Preparation • The 1979 USCF Yearbook is planned for December of this year.

This contradicts something I said in 'USCF Awards 1990', where I wrote, 'the USCF's first yearbook (the "1982 Chess Yearbook") appeared in the April 1983 issue of Chess Life. I have more to say about these anomalies, but I'm out of time for today.