The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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    Pfarr

October 30, 2009

Pfarr retires from postal service

Worked 41 years at Le Sueur facility

By Brian Ojanpa

LE SUEUR — A customer finished his business with Le Sueur post office clerk LeRoy Pfarr and bid him best wishes.

“You kick back and enjoy the golden years, sir,” the customer said.

Pfarr gave a little smile. “Golden years,” he repeated under his breath, as if trying the phrase on for size.

The 64-year-old Pfarr retired Friday after 41 years at the Le Sueur facility.

His full-time job won’t be replaced. Part-time help will fill the breach, per the U.S. Postal Service’s downsizing efforts in tight-budget times.

Besides, automation has usurped many of the tasks Pfarr once did manually. When he started at the post office in 1968, he ran the machines. Now, to a large degree, they run him.

“New workers get four weeks of training now,” he said, unlike when the Postal Service first went to computers. He recalls that day:

“They just came in, set it down, and you went to work.”

Pfarr never pursued becoming a postmaster. That would have meant moving from Le Sueur. No thanks. And no regrets.

He and Diane raised six kids and taught them how to help tend the 50,000 laying hens on their farm while he worked at the post office part time for 12 years until he was put on full time.

The popular misconception is that Postal Service jobs are full time from the get-go. Not so. Even at large post offices, it can take several years to work into that position.

The easygoing Pfarr was just fine with that.

“He’s a pretty laid-back guy. Just comes in every day and does his job. He’s going to be missed,” said Le Sueur Postmaster Andrew Zimprich, who figures Pfarr has seen a dozen postmasters come and go over four decades.

The post office door swung open and in came longtime customer Darrell Erickson.

“How’s it going, Lightning?” Erickson said.

The moniker is a jab at Pfarr’s foot speed, or lack of. The two played softball together years ago, and Erickson likes to remind Pfarr he hasn’t forgotten.

Being a window clerk in a small-town post office means sometimes having to say no to unusual requests — someone once tried to mail homemade wine — and saying yes to legal but odd freights.

Not to mention odiferous.

Pfarr said he’s presided over the packaging of a dead skunk that had to be sent to a lab to be checked for rabies.

“We double wrapped him plastic. But no matter how you wrap a skunk, it still smells.”

He’s also been on the receiving end of dicey mailings, including live honey bees.

“And every one is not always inside the box, either.”

Pfarr’s duties also included the daily raising and lowering of an American flag.

He ordered a new one for his last day on the job. Most likely, a visitor said, no one would notice except him. He shrugged.

“The only important part is that I know.”

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