The staff of the Issaquah post office bid a fond farewell to one of their longest-working colleagues Oct. 2.

Mail carrier Will French’s day began like most others. He arrived shortly after the break of dawn. He walked into the warehouse-like back room of the post office, and to his sorting station, boxed in by three shelved cabinets, one of them bearing his name engraved on a nameplate on top.

The canvas bag containing his route’s mail arrived. He sorted it, in delivery order, into the addressed cubbies on his shelves.

It was a typical morning in the Issaquah post office. Except on this particular morning, supervisor Don Kelly would interrupt the daily ballet to gather the entire staff outside the break room for a special occasion. And on this particular morning, French would participate in that ballet for the last time as he entered retirement.

French walked over and met with his wife, Toni, and his daughter, Erica, then stepped in front of his clapping, smiling coworkers to receive a letter from the U.S. Postal Service congratulating him on his retirement, $200 and a promised round of drinks at the Gaslamp that evening.

“It’s been a good time,” French said. “But it’s time, I guess. And I’ll miss you all.”

Fellow mail carrier Julia Benson, who worked with French for 35 years, said everyone felt a mix of happiness and sadness at his departure.

“Will’s our rock star,” mail carrier Henrri Morales said.

For his part, French said he would need to adjust to the idea of being unemployed for the first time since he was a child.

French took his first job when he was 10, working melon fields in Terre Haute, Indiana for spending money.

At 20, he was drafted into the U.S. Army during a break from college to earn money for tuition. He served in the Vietnam War as a squad leader in the jungles of Thừa Thiên–Huế Province, supplied by Camp Eagle, but rarely returning to base. One year in, he took grenade shrapnel to his leg, back and throat, the latter wound giving him a permanently raspy and gentle voice. He earned three Purple Hearts, but was kept in service another year afterward.

French began work for the U.S. Postal Service in 1973 in Terre Haute. It would be a hunting trip five years later that introduced him to Issaquah. French had come out with a friend planning to attend law school out west and found himself struck by the area’s natural beauty.

“At a certain point he turned to me and asked, ‘How do you like the area?'” French said. “I told him I liked it very much. And he says ‘Let’s move out here.'”

French lucked out with a speedy job offer from Issaquah Postmaster Walt Watkins. The rest was history.

Toni French said she looked forward to having her husband join her in retirement.

“I retired about a year and a half ago,” she said. “When that day came I said, ‘Any time, Hon. Whenever you’re ready.'”

“I’ll miss the people a lot,” French said. “I’ll miss the people here in the office. I’ll miss seeing kids grow up and go to college.

“It’s been fun. I’ve enjoyed it quite a bit.”