RICHFIELD — It was August of 1949 when the U.S. Postal Service stopped using the train to deliver mail to Richfield, and a 21-year-old “kid” made his first mail run in a delivery truck from Salt Lake City, back to his hometown.
That kid was Jack Lund, who today at age 91, has decided it’s time to retire.
“Nobody has ever accused me of being smart, and I didn’t know you had to quit when you are 65," Lund said recently. "I have enjoyed driving the truck, so it is what I wanted to do all my life.”
For nearly 70 years, Lund has transported large bags of mail from Salt Lake City to small rural post offices throughout Utah, and in the process he put a lot of miles on the road.
“I would imagine it is about 3 ½ million,” he said.
Even though he was always a contract worker for the postal service, Lund said he always honored the post office motto of “neither snow, nor rain …” to keep the mail on schedule.
“I was headed for Phoenix one day and there was 4 feet of snow on the mountain south of Panguitch, and the highway patrolman told me I couldn’t go, and I said, ‘This is a mail truck and you can’t stop me unless it’s impossible,’ and I fooled him, I guess, because he let me go,” he recounted.
Now Lund is parking his mail truck for the last time, earning him a celebration from the postal service at the Richfield Post Office, recognizing his 69 ½ years of dedication, helping to get the mail delivered to many small Utah towns.
“I hauled my last load of mail,” he said. “I haven’t made a lot of money, but I have made a good living, and if I can live a few more years and enjoy life, that will be fine.”
“It will be different without the responsibility of hauling the mail, but I think I can handle it,” he quipped.