APWU’s Retirees Director Retires

(This article appeared in the May/June 2005 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)

John R. Smith to be Replaced by Doug Holbrook

John R. Smith, director of the APWU Retirees Department since its creation in 1993, retired May 7. Replacing him will be Douglas C. Holbrook, the union’s secretary-treasurer from 1981 to 1998, APWU President William Burrus announced.

“John Smith was — and is — an inspirational union leader,” Burrus said, recalling that it was Smith who originally signed him up as a member of the National Postal Union (NPU), a predecessor of the APWU. “He always put the members’ interests first, even at the risk of his own career and personal safety.”

“John is a tough act to follow,” Burrus continued. “But Doug Holbrook is uniquely qualified to fill this important job. He has a wealth of experience with the APWU, and he has spent the last five years fighting for the rights of retired Americans.”

Holbrook returns to the union after serving on the executive board of AARP (the American Association of Retired Persons). For the past year, he has served as vice president-secretary/ treasurer of the 35-million-member organization.

Smith had been active in postal unions since the early 1960s. In 1964, he was elected president of the Dayton (OH) local of the National Association of Post Office Mail Handlers. He became president of the state NAPOMH in 1965.

In 1969, not long after the Mail Handlers union voted to affiliate with the Laborers International Union (LIUNA), Smith joined the National Postal Union, where he was elected president of the state NPU and then was appointed as a regional representative of the union. In 1971, when the NPU was absorbed in the merger that created the APWU, Smith was appointed to the post of national vice president of the union’s Mail Handler Craft.

Following his original appointment, Smith was elected to the national APWU position three times during the 1970s. In 1981, he went back to Dayton and worked briefly as a mail handler for the Dayton Post Office. In 1982, he was elected president of the Dayton APWU and served in the top spot of the local until his appointment as the director of the new Retirees Department in 1993.

“This has been the most rewarding work,” Smith said, “helping people to make the most important decisions they have to make in their entire lives ... not only in deciding when to retire, but in helping them make the decisions they will have to make once they have retired.”

“I’m extremely proud of what the Retirees Department has become,” Smith said. “When we look at other unions, we’re doing very well in membership numbers. And the contributions our retirees make to the APWU are outstanding. It’s been a great ride.”

“John Smith gave the Retirees Department a sense of stability, especially given its growth through the years,” said Burrus. He is leaving the department in excellent shape.”

Like Smith before him, Holbrook serves as an APWU presidential appointment. Beginning in 2007, the retirees department director will be elected, as required by the APWU Constitution and Bylaws.