The only mail Gary Lawson will be handling from now on is that he takes to the post office or receives in his mailbox.
That's because, after nearly three decades as Bingen postmaster, Lawson retired from the U.S. Postal Service at the end of July.
His retirement became more or less official the day he turned in his keys to the Bingen Post Office at
the corner of Steuben and Alder.
"That was the hard part. That's when it finally hit me," Lawson says.
That final delivery severed his ties to the post office and marked the end of his 41-year career in the Postal Service, the last two-thirds of which he spent in Bingen 98605.
Lawson's 27@FN(1)@FD(2) years on the job rank as one of the longest tenures in the history of the Bingen Post Ofÿfice (established in 1896).
Now that he's called it quits, Lawson plans to fill his days pursuÿing his passion: fishing.
"I'm going to fish and fish and fish, and when I get tired of fishing, I'm going to fish some more. I may even learn how to flyfish," he says.
In the meantime, Lawson and his wife of 41 years, Aloha, are fixing up their Snowden-area residence, getting it ready for sale. Next spring, they plan to relocate to Cenÿtral Oregon, where they both grew up, to be nearer Aloha's 90-year-old father.
"I don't miss the work," Lawson notes. "I've got plenty of that around home to keep me busy. But I do miss the people. They're what made the job enjoyable all these years."
Lawson's first day on the job as Bingen postmaster was Feb. 23, 1974. He, Aloha and their three children moved to the Twin Cities area after he'd paid his dues as a mail carrier in southeast Portland.
His assignment to Bingen by the Portland district postmaster resulted from his enrollment in a three-year management training program.
His stay in Bingen -- learning the ropes of running a post office -- was supposed to last only one year.
As that year went by, however, the Lawson clan became more and more enamored with their new surÿroundings and what they had to offer.
When the year in Bingen was up, the man who'd assigned Lawson to Bingen took him and Aloha aside at a postmasters convention. He told them Lawson was going to be transÿferred to a mail processing post to complete the second year of his training.
But Lawson had other ideas about how he wanted to spend the next
year and the years to follow.
"I said to him, `Do I have to move? I kind of like it where I am now,' He said, `Well, if that's your decision...,'" Lawson remembers.
"So, right then and there I gave up any chance for advancement in the Postal Service. But I think I made a good decision."
Lawson's decision to enter the Postal Service came with encourÿagement from one of his grandÿfathers, who carried mail in the Laurelhurst district of Portland for many years.
"I'd been enrolled in pre-optomÿetry at Pacific University (in Forest Grove) and put in two years before I dropped out," Lawson notes. "I deÿcided I wanted to make some money and get married."
He and Aloha, who was his nextÿdoor neighbor and high school sweetheart when they were growing up near Terrebonne, Ore., got hitched in February 1960. He enÿtered the Postal Service on Oct. 13 of the same year.
Being an upwardly mobile type like many in his age group, and with a family to think about, Lawson began to map out a career path that would lead him from his regular route onto a higher plane.
"I took some management exams in Portland, as a lot of people did, and I guess I got lucky one time," Lawson recalls.
Little did he realize, though, that that stroke of good fortune would lead to a long and satisfying career in the occupation and zip code of his choosing.
"I've had real good people workÿing for me through the years and I've made a lot of friends along the way," Lawson says, adding, "I know a lot of people here and I'm going to hate to leave."
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