Like Father Like Son at Marshall Post Office
by Dulcy Hooper
“It is very labor intensive around here in the morning,” said Blair Lear, postmaster in Marshall. Lear’s day had begun, as it often does, at 5 a.m. with a huge shipment of parcels arriving from Amazon. “And wehaven’t even received the UPS shipment yet.”
Lear has served as Marshall’s postmaster since 2005.
“I had been in Amissville,” he said. “And in 2004, my boss asked if I would help out briefly in Marshall as officer in charge.”
Lear said that while it was hard to leave Amissville, he’s grateful for “the pleasure of working with such a wonderful staff of 11 experienced and hard-working individuals here in Marshall.”
Lear was familiar with the post office from an early age. His father’s career had been with the post office and he was instrumental in developing the concept of large regional centers from which mail is distributed.
Lear began working for the post office after high school, saving money for college and returning during school breaks while a college student. After obtaining a degree in business management, he moved on to private industry for over 15 years. In 1992, as a single father, the post office became his chosen career.
“The post office has been changing and adapting over the years,” Lear said. “But I’m a big proponent of letters – they are so much more important than email, and that’s never going to go away.”
Nor will catalogues, according to Lear.
“All indications are that people prefer to sit down at home with a paper catalogue, and not view them online,” he said.
Profits from first-class mail diminished with the ascendancy of the internet.
“People began paying their bills online and sending emails rather than letters,” said Lear, who added that Amazon is a “big part of the postal services’ future.”
An act of Congress in 1912 authorized Parcel Post and spurred the growth of the great mail-order houses, leading to 300 million parcels mailed within the first six months and having a tremendous effect on the national economy.
Years later, UPS and FedEx dominated parcel deliveries. However, that is changing and evolving, as well: UPS and FedEx are now moving more of their own packages through the U.S. Postal Service.
In talking about Marshall’s carriers, Lear said “it’s a hard job, and all of our rural carriers here go well beyond the call of duty.”
One of Marshall’s carriers drives a 60-mile route.
“One day this week, for instance, she set out with over 2,000 pieces of mail and more than 80 parcels for 512 deliveries,” Lear said.
With computerized processing and sorting, Lear has records for each day’s mail and noted that “when a mail carrier puts a letter in our mailbox, that is often the first time anyone has touched the letter, other than the individual who sent it in the first place.”
Also going beyond the call of duty, according to Lear, is the staff working behind the counter.
“Maria Angel, who’s been with the post office for 24 years, and Janice Darnell — they know all of our customers,” he said with great pride. “They know them and care about them and do such a great job.”
Lear is clearly knowledgeable about the post office’s long history. Pointing to a stack of receipts for fuel, he asked, “Did you know that the Post Office has the largest fleet of vehicles in the country? Or that it was once the largest employer, with around 800,000 employees?”
There’s much about the post office’s rich history that many have probably forgotten. Benjamin Franklin’s, for example, was the country’s first Postmaster General, serving in that position under both the British crown and the Continental Congress of the fledgling United States.
Two other postmasters went on to become presidents later in their careers— Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman. And other famous postal workers include such iconic individuals as Walt Disney, William Faulkner, Conrad Hilton and Charles Lindbergh.
And who remembers what a ZIP Code is? Launched on July 1, 1963, the Zoning Improvement Plan assigned a five-digit address to every address in the country. In Marshall, it’s 20115.
The Marshall Post Office is located at 8361 W Main Street, in Marshall. It’s open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8:30 a.m. to noon on Saturday.