U.S. mail carrier Jack Lund, 91, has decided to retire from the postal service he’s been working for since August 1949.
That year, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) stopped using trains to deliver mail to Lunn’s hometown of Richfield, Utah, where he made his first mail run in a delivery truck from Salt Lake City.
“No one’s ever accused me of being smart, and I didn’t know you had to quit when you are 65. And I have enjoyed driving the truck, so it is what I wanted to do all my life,” Lund told CNN.
He estimates he’s travelled about 5.6 million kilometres throughout his 70 years of service, which saw him transport large bags of mail from Salt Lake City to small rural post offices throughout Utah.
Despite being a contract worker for the USPS, Lund honours the unofficial motto, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”
“He’s just an old-school hard worker—always on time, just here to do his job, no excuses,” said Wes Kirschner, the postmaster in Richfield, of Lund.