Copeland Manor students honor letter carrier

In snow, in rain and even on glorious, bright sunny days, Bob Smothers has spent the last 40 years delivering mail to Copeland Manor School in Libertyville.

The rugged public servant, who wears a Santa Claus-type beard and boosts the same twinkle in his eye, is being re-routed with a change in the Libertyville post office and students are bidding him goodbye and thanking him for all his service. He has delivered mail in Libertyville for 43 years.

Smothers will be the guest of honor during a brief school assembly between 1 and 1:10 p.m. on April 20 at the school, 801 S. Seventh St., Libertyville. During the event, students will present the dedicated postal worker with a student-created portrait, serenade him, and give him heart-felt thank you letters and cards, books classrooms made to honor his service and a huge envelop to hold all the student-generated mail.

“The recognition for Bob Smothers started as a small conversation in the office and expanded into connections with the current social studies, reading, music, and art curriculum and to Character Counts discussions about citizenship and respect,” said Copeland Manor Principal Erik Youngman. “Third-graders recently learned about our community in social studies and second-graders just read a story about a retiring mailman, called 'Good-bye Curtis'.”

Third-graders painted a portrait of Smothers to connect with Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh's 1888 painting of his postman called Portrait of Joseph Roulin, Youngman said.

During the assembly, second- and third-graders will sing the Motown hit "Please Mr. Postman" (first sung by the Marvelettes, and later covered by The Beatles and The Carpenters) as he enters the event and when he leaves.

“Copeland staff and students have appreciated the great job Bob Smothers has done for the past 43 years in Libertyville,” Youngman added.