Local man named Homer postmaster ©2003 Homer Index by Mike Warner

Dennis Williams' acting days are over. The rural Homer man has formally been promoted to postmaster in the village after serving as acting postmaster since early November. "It's my dream job," an obviously happy Williams remarked after finding out from John Talick, District Manager for the Detroit District of the U.S. Postal Service, that he had been promoted.

"It's an opportunity that I never thought would come along because I never perceived the position would come open during the rest of my career," Williams added.

The opportunity did present itself, however, when former postmaster Marilyn Swanger was forced to retire for health reasons. Williams has been waiting anxiously since November for the permanent postmaster to be named. Now that the job is his, he looks forward to continuing to serve his friends and neighbors.

"One of the best parts of the job is being able to wait on friends and helping people I've known all my life," Williams noted.

Williams most recently served as the postmaster in Olivet. He began his career in the Postal Service as a clerk in the Coldwater branch nine years ago. He has also served as the postmaster at Vermontville, and as acting postmaster in Tekonsha, Augusta, Galesburg and Coldwater.

"I've done a lot of traveling in my career, so another good thing about being assigned here is being close to home," Williams observed. "I thought about that a lot this winter when gas was up over $1.70 a gallon."

Williams has also served in the postal service in a number of other capacities, including statistician for the delivery management team, trainer for the delivery management improvement team and as a certified point of sale trainer.

The public is invited to an "Oath of Office" ceremony Sunday, May 18, at 2 p.m., at the First Presbyterian Church in Homer.

Williams becomes the 27th Homer postmaster. The first was Milton Barney in 1834.

Others were:

• Hiram Smith
• Elisha Thornton,
• Arza Lewis
• Henry Garrison
• James Humeston
• Allen Deming
• J.M.B. Weatherwax
• David Mahoney
• Dwight Nims
• Edward Henderson
• William Webster
• Clayton Collins
• William Snider
• George Aldrich
• Stephen Allen
• Charles Ball
• Seymour Eslow
• Martin King
• Joseph Watson
• Harold Mickle
• Josseph Watson
• Harold Mickle
• Floyd Shear
• Jean Cook
• Robert Spaulding
• Roxanne Lowder
• Marilyn Swanger