MAN MARKS HIS 56TH YEAR AS MAIL CARRIER
By Bowdeya Tweh, Free Press Staff Writer
Free Press
August 20, 2007
A life of service; devoted delivery
Armen Kevorkian is one of those letter carriers all the neighbors
know. Probably because he has visited their Detroit neighborhoods
for the last 56 years delivering mail.
For the Birmingham resident, delivering mail is like clockwork,
and his career clock started ticking July 2, 1951.
Since then, he has never taken a sick day and never traveled a
different route.
At 75, he trudges along with a slight limp but still moves down
streets and across lawns on Detroit’s west side, delivering mail from
the bag slung over his shoulder and greeting residents with a smile.
Kevorkian said that walking the same mail route has allowed him to
become attached to the residents and to the environment.
"The people are my extended family," said Kevorkian. "They’re kind,
generous and appreciative. I can’t find fault with them for any
reason."
Wendy Johnson, 28, lives on Kevorkian’s route. She said that she
welcomes his visits, as well as the compliments that he pays to
her garden.
"He’s so friendly and outgoing," Johnson said.
Edward Moore, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service Detroit district,
estimates that Kevorkian has worked about 17,000 days — often working
six-day weeks and taking few vacations.
Kevorkian started as soon as he graduated from Cooley High School in
1951. He said that he was hired in at 87 cents an hour and worked five
years as a temporary employee. Five years later, he became full-time.
"He keeps up just as good as if he was 20," said Charlena Richmond,
Kevorkian’s supervisor.
Kevorkian said that since the postal service officials gave him a job,
his way to thank them is to show up for work every day, often early.
"That’s the way I show appreciation for those who gave me a job,"
Kevorkian said. "They depend on me, and I depend on them for my
livelihood."
But Kevorkian does look to the day when he will deliver his last
piece of mail. He sees July 2, 2011, as a good time to retire.
Kevorkian would leave the Postal Service with 60 years of service,
but he also would leave the neighborhood where he spent a majority
of his life.