When Danny Brackett wakes up Monday morning, he will find his shoes under his own bed in his own home, and the United States Postal service will discover it has some big shoes to fill.

“Monday the sixth is when I have to wake up and go, ‘Where am I?” said Brackett.

Brackett will retire Friday after 36 years with the United States Postal Service and resettle in his hometown of Chillicothe with his wife, Jan.

The couple built their home in Sycamore Trail this year, with Brackett’s retirement in mind.

Through his many years in the postal industry, Brackett has climbed his way to the management level and been promoted too numerous an amount of times to count.

Brackett ‘goes postal’
A native Chillicothean, Brackett graduated in the Illinois Valley Central High School Class of 1970.

He headed toward Illinois Central College, unsure about his future goals and what life would bring.

Vietnam veterans were returning to their home country to find a scarcity of jobs, and Brackett soon realized the importance of establishing a career.

As a result, he took the postal exam in July 1971 and continued to work odd jobs for the next 14 months.

His patience worked for the best when he was hired as a letter carrier in Peoria in September 1972.

His first permanent route took him to the Northgate Park area less than a year later, where he delivered in the residential area, then did an air mail collection at the end as part of the job.

Five years later, in November, he transferred to Chillicothe as a letter carrier for 15 months, but the job left him unfulfilled.

“There were only four routes in town and one auxiliary route, and I just got kind of bored,” said Brackett. “There wasn’t the variety there like in Peoria.”

So, in February 1980, Brackett transferred back to Peoria, where he carried mail for another year.

Still finding himself yearning for more, he determined to go into the management field.

That decision led to his promotion to supervisor of mail and delivery in Peoria in early 1982.

Just three years later, he again was promoted to superintendent of delivery and collection in Peoria.

Finally, in 1989, he was promoted to Henry postmaster.

Ever restless and eager for more experiences, Brackett was offered the opportunity to work in the mail processing side of the company at the Peoria plant in spring 1992.

As usual, he was promoted by December that same year, to manager of distribution operations at the Peoria processing facility.

To his pleasant surprise, this job turned out to be truly life-changing in several ways.

Most importantly, it was there that he met his wife, and the couple married the next year.

Life proceeded normally for the next two years, when Brackett again had an irresistible chance to advance.

“In 1995, an opportunity presented itself for a new division of the company called the remote bar coding system,” said Brackett.

“So, in June or July, I was promoted to manager of remote encoding operations in Peoria.”

This job carried with it a great deal of responsibility as well as satisfaction, and an unusual goal at its conclusion.

“Your main goal was to become so efficient that you actually worked yourself out of a job,” said Brackett.

As the manager, Brackett was responsible for hiring and opening the new facility, commonly known as the Peoria Remote Encoding Center, at the Peoria Regional Airport.

REC was an operation that employed data input keyers, where an image would be lifted from a letter, sent over a T1 line to a console, where a data technician would provide the proper ZIP codes and address according to the prompts displayed on their screen.

“Each letter had a fluorescent orange ID tag sprayed on the back, and the ID tag stayed with the letter until the data for the letter was sent back and rerun on a different piece of equipment, which sprayed the correct 11-digit ZIP code,” said Brackett.

Under his leadership, the facility reached its goal and has since closed.

“Because of technology, the postal service has only eight of these facilities left, out of the 56 nationwide,” noted Brackett.

By March 2003, Brackett began work at the Palatine Processing and Distribution Center, the largest processing center in Illinois.

Promotion came just over a year later, as Brackett became manager of distribution operations.

The third-shift job required 650 craft employees and 27 managers and supervisors to report to Brackett.

“We were responsible for processing letters and flats for the 600 associate offices for carrier delivery the next day,” said Brackett.

Then, not surprisingly, came another opportunity.

“In February 2006, I was asked to go to the Irving Park Road facility to transition it into a priority packaging center for Northern Illinois,” said Brackett.

Finally, his last move delivered him back to the Palatine processing center in February 2007.

“I was assigned back there as the senior manager of distribution operations,” said Brackett.
“That’s equivalent to being the plant manager, with the responsibility for 1,500 employees, 75 managers and supervisors processing over 6 million pieces of mail a day.”

That responsibility comes to an end Friday.

“While at Palatine the last year-and-one-half, I’m leaving with having a lot to do with their achieving their best-ever service scores,” said Brackett.

Leaving a stamp on his career
Brackett and his wife spent many vacations at their condominium in Kauai, Hawaii, for 10 years.

They eventually bought a rental house there, which they still own, with the idea of retiring to the island.

The pull of family and friends, however, proved stronger than blue Hawaii, and the Bracketts laid down their final roots in Chillicothe.

“Two years ago, in April 2006, Jan and I decided, after lengthy conversations, to come back to Chillicothe, my hometown, to buy a lot, with the understanding we would build a house and start living together again,” said Brackett.

Brackett’s many job changes have kept him away from home about half of his married life.

“During the last 15 years, we’ve only lived together 7 1/2 years because I’ve been on the road,” said Brackett. “It’s like dating on the weekends.”

“I’ll no longer be a post office widow,” said Jan, who still works at the Peoria Post Office as a window clerk.

Brackett’s sister, Sandy Holden, is a distribution clerk at the North University station in Peoria.

His brother, Charlie, retired from the United States Postal Service two years ago as the Springfield plant maintenance manager.

Both his siblings joined the post office in 1973.

Brackett’s daughter, Jessica  Voulgarelis, lives in Charlotte, N.C., with her husband, Michael, and their 2 1/2-year-old son, Andrew.

The Bracketts plan to visit there frequently to see their grandson.

“My grandson and my great-niece and great-nephew are worth more than Hawaii,” said Brackett. “I want to be around family and friends.”

Jan said she plans to spend summers in her new pool at home, and they both plan to rejoin Pearce Community Center. They also belong to Arrowhead Country Club.

The Bracketts also have a trip planned to Orlando, Fla., a retirement vacation of sorts, “and just do nothing,” said Brackett.

He said he considered retiring in January this year, but a few people stepped in to convince him otherwise.

“My wife and two bosses cornered me at a reception and changed my mind,” said Brackett. “It’s been a long, good road. My current boss, Ron Woodall, has afforded me the opportunity to experiment and challenged me with lofty goals. He’s been a very influential and driving force in my successes over the last 16 years.

“But things have to end, and I’m looking forward to this next chapter.”

For the past six months, Jan has lived in the house in Sycamore Trail, with Brackett dropping in most weekends.

Schoolmates and friends Mike and Cheryl Murphy offered a lot of good advice and help researching what to look for in building a new home.

“In 36 years, I’ve done just about everything you can do except maintenance and labor,” Brackett said of his lengthy career with the postal service.

“It’s just time to say goodbye. I look forward to being married again and living in Chilllicothe and coming home. Jan, who’s always lived in the city, is learning how to wave at people.”

She will have lots of opportunities to do just that in this small town with a 61523 ZIP code. And her husband has stamped his mark on the U.S. Postal Service.

“I just want to retire and be a nobody,” said Brackett. “I’ve had as good a life as anybody, and in my postal career, I have done a lot of different things — challenges, geographic areas — and treasure all of them, good or bad.

“But it’s time to start something new and say hello to my wife in Chillicothe.”