Man who started by sorting mail on trains ends a long, successful run

Neumann, whose father also was a postal worker, spent the first 18 years of his career sorting mail on a route between Chicago and Nebraska. He remembers standing with one foot slightly behind the other to keep his balance as the train, chugging along at 70 miles an hour, picked up and dropped off mail bags hanging in small towns along the way.

“Over our heads was a crash bar that, any time the engineer was going to break heavy, you reached up and grabbed that bar to keep yourself up,” Neumann recalled. “It was stressful.”

When the Postal Service discontinued mail sorting on the trains, Neumann transferred to the former processing plant at O’Hare International Airport, where he worked as a mechanic on the bulk mail conveyors through the 1970s. Nearly a decade later, he was promoted to a supervisor. He was repeatedly recognized over the next 30 years for acts such as using his own money to engrave nameplates to label equipment or, during his free time, researching and ordering protective harnesses for his workers, Reynolds said.

Postal worker retires after 61 years

April 11, 2014 (WLS) — He’s had one of the longest careers in the U.S. Postal Service, but after 61 years, Chicagoan Robert Neumann is retiring.

A party was held in his honor Friday at Chicago’s main post office. When he began his career, a postal stamp cost 3 cents.

Initially, Neumann was a railroad clerk, sorting mail on a train that ran between Chicago and Nebraska. He went on to become a maintenance supervisor.

Neumann said if his doctors would let him, he’d keep working.

Postal service employee retires after 61 years