By Correne Martin
After 34 years working for the United States Postal Service, Prairie du Chien Postmaster Darryl Martin retired at the end of September.
He started as a part-time clerk on May 29, 1982, in Prairie du Chien, sorting mail and running the window, where he quickly realized his gift of gab was a perfect fit for the customer-based business. It wasn’t long, however, before Martin slipped into the duty of carrying the mail.
From 1984 through 2006, he served as a part-time flexible carrier in the Prairie du Chien area.
“I enjoyed being outside and working with our customers,” Martin noted.
But after 22 years of the same, he stepped up into a postmaster job in Bloomington in 2006. There, he grew very fond of the people in the small community and being situated among the main street businesses for seven years.