Post Office Bids Goodbye to Long-Time Employee

The Thorp Courier (Thorp, WI)
November 18, 2009
Transcribed by Dolores Mohr Kenyon

On Thursday, November 19, Robert Schesel will take his last trip around Rural Route 2, Thorp.  After 36 years of service to the US Postal Service and the Thorp Community, Robbie Schesel is retiring.
 
Robbie started his postal career in 1975 after taking the Civil Service test.  He was the sub on Route 2 and Route 3 until he got his first regular position on Route 1, when Bernard Frenette retired in January of 1980.  He then took the Route 3 job when Deacon Hedler retired, and in 1989, he got the bid on Route 2 when Tony Penk retired.
 
Robbie has been serving the Route 2 area for 20 years and has put more than 400,000 miles on that ol’ white truck without any accidents.  Safety has always been a priority for him.  He remembers helping customers, one who had fallen and broken her leg, helping her to the house and calling the ambulance. Another had fallen and cut her leg badly.  Robbie helped her to the house and stopped the bleeding.  Helping those in need was just what he did, not a big deal to him. Too many times, he worried about children playing in the road.  They were his customers and he was always looking out for them.
 
Robbie and his wife, Nancy, were married in 1970 and ran a dairy farm.  He worked at the Post Office at the same time, until 1991 when their house burned.  They raised three children, Todd, Sarah, and Tim, and have six grandchildren, with one more on the way.
 
Over the years, Robbie has seen many families come and go, children grow up, move away, and then move back again with their families.  Then there are the pranksters, one who filled the mailbox with dirt so Robbie couldn’t put the mail in the mailbox; and the customer who had come out of the milk house for a package – her sleeve was damp and she got frozen to the truck.  He has gotten to know his customers so well, and many have become his friends.
 
Robbie tells me how much he has enjoyed his job at the Post Office and that he sure is going to miss all of his customers, their words of good cheer, and smiling faces.  The only thing he won’t miss is trying to reach the mailboxes in the winter ice and snow.
 
After retiring, he is going to do a little more fishing and hunting, spend more time with those grandchildren, and throw a little traveling in there, too.
 
Congratulations, Robbie, on a well-deserved retirement.  Best of luck and many years of healthy retirement.  Thank you for faithfully serving the Thorp community for so many years.  We will miss you greatly.
 
Submitted by Donna Woodcock, Postmaster at Thorp