Fernkopf retires after 30 years as a carrier for the postal service

Fred Fernkopf of rural Holton has retired as a postal carrier for the Holton Post Office. Fernkopf worked at post offices in Topeka and Holton for a combined 30 years of service.

While Fernkopf officially retires on Monday, Feb. 29, his last day of work was earlier this month since he had accrued several days of vacation. 

Fernkopf said he was traveling out of town to work construction in 1986 when he looked into a career with the U.S. Postal Service. 

“I didn’t want to be away from our two young kids,” Fernkopf said.

Fernkopf started as a part-time flexible carrier at the main post office in downtown Topeka in February 1986. 

In May 1995, Fernkopf, who grew up north of Circleville and graduated from Jackson Heights High School, transferred to the Holton Post Office. 

There are three mail carrier routes in the city of Holton, and Fernkopf said that for 10 years, he would he would fill in for the regular mail carriers on those routes. 

“In April 2005, one of the regular carriers retired, and I took over that route,” he said. 

Fernkopf said that his route required about an hour and a half of walking per day but that the majority of his route was curbside delivery from a truck.

He said one of the strangest items he saw come through the post office for delivery was an unpackaged coconut. 

“It wasn’t wrapped in anything. It was just a coconut with an address on it,” he said.

Throughout his career walking mail routes, Fernkopf said he has been bitten twice by dogs.

“The bites were nothing major,” he said. 

He said he enjoyed the interactions he had with the people on his route.

“There’s people that look forward to seeing the mailman every day, and there’s others that would see you come up the street and shut their door,” he said. “Most people were happy to see me, and some went out of their way to make sure they would talk to me every day. The best thing was when a little kid would get a package. They were just thrilled to get a card or package from grandma.”

The postal service has seen many changes in the past 30 years, Fernkopf said, including an increase in the automation of sorting letter mail.

“We used to hand sort a lot more mail,” he said. “Now most of it’s automated, and we don’t see it until we’re delivering it on the street.”

He said he’s also seen a “tremendous” increase in package delivery in the last one to two years. 

“A lot of the packages are coming from Amazon,” he said of the online retailer.

In his retirement, Fernkopf said he plans to spend more time on his livestock farm with his wife, Sheila. They also plan to visit their two children and six grandchildren more often, as well as do some traveling.