FORT WORTH, TX—Leslie C. “Les” Phipps will be officially installed as Fort Worth’s 36th Postmaster, on Friday, Dec. 4. A long-time Fort Worth resident, Phipps joins the distinguished list of Fort Worth Postmasters dating back 153 years, starting in 1856, when Julian Field was appointed Fort Worth’s First Postmaster.

Fort Worth District Manager Victor Benavides will administer the Oath of Office to Phipps during an 11 a.m. ceremony in the Fort Worth City Hall Council Chambers, 1000 Throckmorton, in Downtown Fort Worth. The community is encouraged to attend the installation. A public meet and greet session will immediately follow the ceremony, which is expected to end around noon.

As Fort Worth’s Postmaster, Phipps has overall responsibility for mail delivery in a city with over 382,000 possible deliveries and leadership of a Postal workforce of 1,187 employees. The Fort Worth Post Office has 31 Post Office stations and branches, plus 10 contract postal units, and generates over $94 million annually in total operating revenue.

A nearly 36-year Postal Service veteran, Phipps began his career in Fort Worth, TX as a Letter Sorting Machine (LSM) Clerk in 1974. In 1977, Phipps was promoted to Supervisor of Mails at the Fort Post Office, and he has held increasingly responsible positions in Customer Service, Transportation, and Mail Processing management since that time, including assignments outside of Fort Worth, in Amarillo, Dallas, Sweetwater and Waco, TX; Memphis, TN; and Washington, DC.

Phipps’ educational background includes two Associate Degrees from Tarrant County College, a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from Dallas Baptist University, and a Master’s of Business Administration from Strayer University. He graduated from the Postal Service Advanced Leadership Program in 2005. Due to his extensive Postal Service experience and education, Phipps served as an instructor with Tarrant County College from 1983 – 1995, teaching several Postal Service courses offered as part of the Postal Service Associates (PSA) program.

Phipps’ wife, Christee, is also a Postal Service employee - Manager of Address Management Systems for the USPS’s Fort Worth District. They share six sons and one daughter, and 12 grandchildren.

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A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars. With 36,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, the Postal Service relies on the sale of postage, products and services to pay for operating expenses. Named the Most Trusted Government Agency five consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $68 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 26th in the 2008 Fortune 500.