RR postal exhibit dedication planned

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DELPHOS — For the men that worked on the rails of the Railway Post Office (RPO), it was a difficult, challenging life.  From the mid 1800s until 1975, much of America’s mail was sorted and transported across the tens of thousands of miles of track that crisscrossed this nation.

In order to help tell their story and to preserve many of the memories, The Museum of Postal History in Delphos has erected a replica of an RPO compartment, similar to that used on the Akron Canton & Youngstown Railroad.  Delphos was the westbound terminus for this particular RPO run.

Starting at 4 p.m. Saturday, May 19, this car and accompanying exhibits will be dedicated to an RPO clerk who travelled the Pittsburgh & Chicago mail run on the Pennsylvania Railroad. Donald Fair retired from the post office in the mid 1980s and has been speaking to groups all his life about the U.S. Railway Mail Service.

Nearly 85 now, Fair remembers the many hours he spent learning all the cities in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana and the rail connections for each. “We had to pass strict exams every year with a 98 percent accuracy,” said Fair.

Fair had wanted to have the exhibits dedicated to all of those who served, but Museum Curator Gary Levitt felt the exhibit should be dedicated to Fair, explaining, “Don has donated many of his personal artifacts to the museum and has entertained many visitors with his stories. It was only fitting that we do this in his honor.”