Date: Fri 10-Sep-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

Richard-Maguire-postmaster

Full Text:

Maguire Retires From The Post Office

(with photo)

BY STEVE BIGHAM

For 35 cents, the United States Post Office pledges that "neither snow nor

rain nor heat nor gloom of night" will stop it from its appointed rounds. This

is a promise that is hard to keep, and it takes a toll on those the US

government hires to carry it out.

As Seinfeld's nemesis Newman points out, the mail never ends. It keeps coming

and coming, day after day. No one understands that better than longtime

Newtown postmaster Richard "Dick" Maguire who retired last week after 15 years

of service. This perfectionist/workaholic once went nine years without a

single day off (including Saturdays and Sundays). Eventually, the stress and

pressure of his job got the best of him. It is for health reasons that he was

finally forced to retire after being out on leave for 18 months.

But as Mr Maguire recently recounted his stint as head of the Newtown post

office, his love for postal work was evident. The newly retired postal worker

put in those long hours as if it were a call to battle, and he never wanted to

miss a minute of it. And, from time to time, the job wasn't so thankless after

all.

"Every once in a while a person would come in and say, `you guys do an

incredible job. I don't know how you do it,'" he recalled. "Those kind words

made my day, my week and my month."

Mr Maguire now spends his days resting quietly at his home in Southbury.

Although many of the postal battle scars remain, he is far removed from the

fray. Four temporary postmasters have filled the void since his departure, and

a permanent replacement is now being sought.

The Early Years

Mr Maguire arrived in Newtown in July of 1984 after postmaster Al Nichols

retired. At that time, the Newtown post office was located on Queen Street

(where My Place Restaurant now sits). The building was terribly undersized

with just 3,000 square feet of space.

"I even had mail stacked up in my office," he recalled.

Mr Maguire's biggest challenge in those days was dealing with the postal

service's switch to automation and the need to alter people's thinking when it

came to addressing envelopes. Many Newtowners never bothered using street

numbers, while others simply wrote their name, failing to include such

important information as street, town, state and zip code.

"People would say `I've lived here for 40 years, you guys know where I live,'"

he recalled. "It was a small town attitude."

With the onset of automation, machines -- not humans -- were reading the

addresses off the envelopes. Failure to properly address letters could cause

delays. Also, many homeowners were not putting their house numbers on their

mailboxes, causing added confusion.

During his 15 years at the helm of Newtown's postal system, Mr Maguire had a

front row seat for the town's steady growth -- both in numbers and in

household income. Studies have shown that more money means more mail. As

Newtown got richer, there were more credit card promotions, Eddie Bauer

catalogs and home equity offers. Nationwide, more people began buying things

over the Internet, creating more and more mail -- some of it rather large.

"When I first arrived, there were only 10 routes. Today there are 24«. We have

five carriers for Main Street alone," he said. "Instead of two pieces of mail,

people are now getting 9 to 10."

To handle the growth, the US Postal Service built an 18,000 square foot

facility on Commerce Road. Mr Maguire played a large part in its design. The

24-hour lobby access was his idea and he almost convinced his superiors to

install a drive-up window. It didn't fly.

Mr Maguire recalled when Newtown absorbed the Sandy Hook Post Office. "That

was a real challenge," he said. "People would move in and out almost daily.

Letter carriers were constantly searching for transient individuals."

Customer Service

His title may have been postmaster, but Mr Maguire wore many hats. He

delivered mail on many occasions, especially when manpower was down, or in

inclement weather. He also made deliveries late at night.

"I went through two transmissions," he said.

Mr Maguire recalled one evening when a customer chased him down on Church Hill

Road to request he return to the post office to date stamp a letter.

"We really tried to provide public service. My whole background was customer

service," said Mr Maguire.

As postmaster, Mr Maguire's duties included customer service, safety and

toilet paper changing (not necessarily in that order).

"You had to do just about everything," he said.

Mr Maguire graduated from the University of Connecticut in 1964 and

immediately took a job with Electric Motors in Milford. By 1972, he was

national service manager for what had become the third largest electric motor

manufacturer in America. But the plant shut down in 1973, forcing Mr Maguire

to give up his job. After a year in California, he landed postal jobs in

Westport and then in Stamford. At the time, he was living in Sandy Hook in the

former home of 1976 decathlon gold medal winner Bruce Jenner.

"I used to find pole vaults in the yard," he recalled.

In Stamford, Mr Maguire held the position of "trouble shooter," where he soon

discovered the daily demand of postal work.

Mr Maguire just underwent an angioplasty three weeks ago and he is learning

that old habits do indeed die hard. Looking back, however, Dick Maguire

probably wouldn't have changed any of it.