SNOW HILL — Mike Harris once busted in a door to get inside a house in East Kinston.
He was a city carrier then, delivering mail on foot in the early 1990s when he heard a moaning sound on his regular route.
Inside the house was an elderly woman who was having a stroke. His life-saving act earned him recognition by the U.S. Postal Service when Mike Slentz was postmaster.
Now, as postmaster of the Snow Hill Post Office, Harris is retiring June 30 after more than 31 years.
“Out of all my years of carrying mail,” he said, “being able to help someone in despair or need, it really made my job feel worthwhile.”
A native of Pensacola, Fla., Harris came to Kinston in 1980 after he left a three-year stint with the Marines as a corporal in a landing support team. He began working at the former Kinston Office Supply as a printer under then-supervisor Willie Graham.
Harris, 55, had earned three awards and a conduct medal in the military and was planning to get a job as a state trooper.
“I was fresh out of the military, I was good with guns, an expert rifleman and sharpshooter pistol, so what the heck,” he said with a chuckle.
But Harris saw an ad for the Postal Service and thought he’d give that a try for awhile. He had no intentions of making it a career.
In October 1981, he got a job as a mail processing clerk at the main post office downtown. Harris began delivering mail in the mid-1980s and did so more than 12 years.
“My first dog bite was kind of scary,” he said.
He got bit on Washington Street. The dog ripped a piece of his skin out, and Harris had to get a tetanus shot.
Harris recalled being at the post office and watching the television as the Twin Towers fell to the ground in New York City on September 11.
“That is something I will never forget in my life,” he said.
Many of the residents in East Kinston were elderly, and a number of them passed away during the time Harris was delivering mail.
“I just had a personal relationship with them,” he said. “I knew my customers, and every day they could count on me being there at a certain time.”
Harris left Kinston as a supervisor to work at the Ayden Post Office. His first postmaster position was in Warsaw, and later in Clinton. Following back surgery, he returned to Kinston in 2009 and, since 2010, has been postmaster in Snow Hill.
Processing mail has changed greatly over the years, he said. In the early years of his career, mail was processed by many hands.
“Now the workforce has decreased because of automation,” Harris said.
The Postal Service had about 800,000 employees in the early 1980s, but now that number has been cut in half, he said.
Harris said he remains positive about the Postal Service remaining a viable service, despite a decrease in the amount of letter mail.
He said new products are being introduced and better service with “fair, competitive pricing” keeps the Postal Service running. In addition, with people purchasing online, the federal service keeps busy delivering packages.
“It’s just been a joy to work there,” Harris said about Snow Hill, “and we had some great people working there.”
Harris plans to spend time with his family, as well as with his elderly mother in Florida.
“My plans are to enjoy my family, first and foremost,” he said.
Harris resides in Winterville with his wife Stephanie. He has two grown step-children, and the couple has four grown children.
Margaret Fisher can be reached at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @MargaretFishr.