Lopez Postmaster Retires

After 35 years with the U.S. Postal Service, Dan Kovac is retiring. The Lopez Postmaster will smile at customers from behind the counter for the last time on January 3, 2005.

“I was lucky to get this position,” Kovac said. “It’s been great working here.”

Lopez postal clerk Ginni Keith said, “We’re going to miss him around here. He’s a really nice guy.”

Before coming to Lopez in 1991, Kovac worked at the Friday Harbor Post Office as a clerk for 13 years; before that, at the Post Office in the San Francisco International Airport.

When he returned from Vietnam, Kovac said, things were changing in San Francisco. “They put in Bay fill and freeways.” Also, in the wake of the war, “there was a lot of name-calling, and I wanted to go someplace where nobody knew I’d been to Vietnam.” He moved to Orcas and was registering his car in Friday Harbor when he met Postmaster Charlie Nash, who told him of an opening at the Post Office. With two small daughters to raise, Kovac said, he felt he couldn’t say no to the job and the benefits that came with it.

When Lopez Postmaster Bob Jones retired in 1991, Kovac applied for that position. He and his wife Dot moved to Lopez after selling their San Juan Island home in 1992.

Early in his Lopez career, Kovac oversaw construction of the new Lopez Post Office building. The move was accomplished over Memorial Day weekend of 1993 and the grand opening was held on July 4th.

Kovac said he had no input about the design of the building that the Post Office leases from the owner. It’s the standard one used for this size community, which was categorized as a Level 15 community at that time (now we’re Level 16–we’ve grown). The Post Offices in Gold Bar and Maple Falls are exactly like ours.

Kovac said he and his wife plan to stay on Lopez. “It’s a fantastic community–I love it,” he said.“Every time something adverse happens, everybody sticks together.”

Kovac has been a Little League coach since moving to Lopez. Last year, for the first time, he also teamed up with Daryl Davidson to coach a middle-school girls’ softball team.

He is treasurer for the Lopez Seniors, and said Senior Coordinator Larry Schulze has already told him he’s going to keep him plenty busy as the Seniors continue work on the Woodmen Hall and make plans to move into it.

Kovac, whose daughters are now grown, said he and his wife are looking forward to spending more time with their two small grandsons.

Coincidentally, upon Kovac’s retirement, the Postmaster jobs on Orcas (both in Eastsound and Olga), San Juan, and Lopez will all be open at once.

The public is invited to a reception to honor Kovac on Thursday, December 30 from 1-3pm at the Lopez Post Office.

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