After four decades delivering mail in Mequon and Thiensville, Don Wessel is ready to hang up his mail bag.

THIENSVILLE - U.S. Postal Service mail carrier Don Wessel will deliver his last letter on Tuesday and will park his postal truck after 42 years as a mailman.

Neighbors say it just won’t be the same without him.

Since November 1966, Wessel has had two routes. One was for 15 years and his current one - Route 6 - for 26 years in a Mequon neighborhood where he delivers to more than 300 addresses.

"There’s an awful lot of people who are going to miss him. He’s so sweet," said Julie Petri, a resident on his route for 26 years. "We’ve had him all these years, so as you can imagine, we’ll miss him very much. I’m sure he’ll be back to visit. But we’re going to miss him. He’s such a sweet man."

When Wessel began nearly 42 years ago he was making $2.64 an hour. Nine months later he was able to secure a full-time position with the post office. However, his hourly wage dropped to $2.55, but he admitted he was happy to have paid holidays.

"Back in 1966, a lot of the land in Mequon and Thiensville was reserved for farming, but now those fields have made way for subdivisions and large houses," Wessel said.

Wessel, 62, of Mequon said he has no significant plans for retirement except to spend more time with his wife Sue and visit with his grown children who live within an hour or two away.

"It will be different not having to wake up and put on the blue uniform, but I won’t miss the cold weather," he said. "I’ll have a chance to sleep in and get caught up on some projects around the house. Nothing big though."

Wessel was employed at a garage that maintained the postal vehicles when he was approached to deliver mail.

"I thought I would give it a try," he said. "I started out as a substitute for the holidays and then worked my way up to a utility postal carrier. I liked it and here it’s 42 years later and I’m going to retire."

Wessel said he’s going to miss the customers on his route and those he works with.

Kevin Tenner, who has been working as a utility postal carrier for the past three years at the Thiensville Post Office on Freistadt Road, works across from Wessel when the two sort mail in the morning.

"I call him, ‘the general’ because of the amount of years he has in, and he may never say he’s a teacher, but I say he is," Tenner said in his booming voice. "Don’s the type of letter carrier you strive to be. He’s so kind and generous with his time. I’ve only been here three years, but I hate to see him go. He gave to the community for so long and now it’s time we gave something back to him. He’ll be missed by a lot of people."

Anthony Tobiasz, the officer-in-charge Thiens-ville postmaster, echoed those sentiments.

"Don’s the perfect model for a letter carrier," Tobiasz said. "He doesn’t call in sick. He doesn’t complain. Customer service is his number one priority. He does his job and does it well."

Kayt Havens, who also resides on Wessel’s route, is coordinating a "thank you" letter-writing campaign with the neighbors in her subdivision.

"He’s such a nice guy," she said. "We just don’t want to see him go."

Neither does Petri.

"I remember I couldn’t wait for the mail to get to my house and my daughter was waiting for an acceptance letter from Connecticut College so I found Don and asked if he could pull my mail and he did," Petri said. "He could’ve said, ‘Why don’t you wait until I get to your house?’ But he didn’t.

"He went in the back of his truck and went through the carriers of mail and found the letter for me, which I took up to school for my daughter. He was so kind to do that for me. He didn’t have to but he did it anyway."

Petri and Havens said Wessel also takes their larger packages to the door for them when other postal employees in other communities would leave it in the snow by the person's mailbox.

"Not Don," Petri said. "He brings it right to the door and makes sure we get the packages without leaving them outside in the elements."

His customers don’t want him to retire, Tobiasz said.

"He’s old school. He just gets his work done without any complaints," he said. "You can't ask anything more of him."

Except maybe to delay his retirement.