BAY PINES, FL – Martin Heisele has held many positions throughout his 37-year Postal Service career.

Today, he serves as Bay Pines Postmaster. He and two clerks oversee retail sales and box sections for customers in this community.

With a population hovering at 3,000, Bay Pines has a lot to be proud of, including the Bay Pines Veterans Administration Home and Hospital. It’s a historic district, with prehistoric aboriginal sites and 14 Mediterranean Revival-style hospital buildings constructed in the 1930s. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.

"I enjoy my job and serving my customers," he says. "This is such an interesting community."

Heisele says he is proud of his service and ability to listen to employees. As Pinellas Park's Officer In Charge he says, "the first thing I did when I got there was listen to the employees. I ensured they were heard and given all the tools they needed to succeed. I met many good people who just needed to be cared about. We lifted Pinellas Park to the District's number 1 level 22 post office within two months.”

The new Postmaster, a graduate of Tampa College Clearwater with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Science and St. Petersburg College Clearwater with an Associate in Arts, says he applied to work with the Postal Service when the company he was working for went out of business.

"I took the postal exam in May of 1986 and was hired by December that year. I chose this for its stability and advancement possibilities," he says.

"I have seen the transformation from a primarily manual sorting process to a fully automated mail processing,” he recalls. "When I started, you worked seven days a week, 12 hours a day from Thanksgiving through the end of January. "We worked letters primarily and only had parcels around Christmas. Now, we are almost the opposite.”

"Add this to all the scanning and the ability to track your mail for almost its entire journey," he said enthusiastically. "The public needs to comprehend how much mail we move across the country daily! The numbers are astounding. The Postal Service does a fantastic job moving the mail and is constantly changing to meet the needs of our customers."

Heisele says he has a lot to thank the Postal Service for, including meeting his now-wife Terri, a St. Petersburg letter carrier at the time.

"We've been married for almost 24 years, and we have two children together: Jordan and Noelle. I also have two children from my previous marriage. We live with our four dogs and several cats," he says.

"Applying to become a postal employee was a great decision," he says. "One I am thankful for."

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