After 38 Years, West Is Retiring
From Rochester Post Office
By Martha Slater

Long-time Rochester Postmaster Annette (Sugie) West will retire on her birthday, Friday, Dec. 22, after a 38-year career with the U.S. Postal Service.

"Sugie," who got her nickname as a baby when her father said she was sweet as sugar, grew up with her three sisters on a farm in Belmont. She spent her elementary years at a one-room school and graduated from Black River High School in Ludlow in 1957 when she was 16. She went to Becker Junior College in Worcester, Mass. to study to be a medical secretary and when she graduated, worked at Rutland Hospital until 1962, when her first son, Teno, was born. A New Year’s bride, she married Linton ("Packy") West on Jan. 1, 1960 and has been a Rochester resident ever since.

Sugie and her husband, who owned and operated the barbershop in town back then, also have a second son, Andrew, who is now principal of the Bethel Schools. Teno is a lawyer and partner in a firm in West Hartford Conn. The two have made her a proud grandmother of six (Samantha, Hannah, Danielle, Owen, Audrey, and Levi) and she is looking forward to having everyone home for Christmas for the first time in several years.

Sugie began her career with the post office on Dec. 8, 1968, when she was hired as a clerk at old Rochester Post Office, which was located where the laundromat is now. After three weeks, the present post office opened on Jan 1, 1969, "so I always say I came with the office," she notes.

"Back then, we had two carriers, a full-time clerk and two substitute clerks," Sugie recalls. "I was one and the other was Margaret Guilmette" (mother of the late long-time town clerk Frances). "Marge Bowen was full-time, Tom Manning was the acting postmaster, and the carriers were Bill Kent and Maurice Guilmette."

In 1982, she was promoted to postmaster for Rochester. She says the biggest challenge of her job is keeping the public happy and everything done on time, "and sometimes we don’t always have a full staff due to budget constraints."

Right now, the office has two carriers, Harland McKirryher (whose enthusiastic singing can often be heard as he sorts the mail) and Richard Shum. The clerks are Nancy Needham, who is in charge if Sugie isn’t at the office, and Janine Grady. They also occasionally borrow a clerk from Gaysville.

"The post office is the central hub of the town," Sugie observes. "The best part of my job has been all the people I’ve gotten to know during my years here and I’ll particularly miss seeing the children. I’ve watched so many of them grow up and remember when they could first see over the counter. Most people here like to come to the post office, and particularly for older people, it’s an important part of their day."

The Rochester Post Office staff always dresses up for holidays, and for many years, had a "haunted post office" each Halloween. They have a customer appreciation day every year, where they offer refreshments they bake themselves and they also had celebrations for the 175th and 185^th anniversaries of the Rochester Post Office. They also celebrate each other’s birthdays.

Working in a small-town rural post office has its challenges, too.

"We still deliver baby chickens and sometimes live bees," Sugie noted. "Sometimes, some of them get out and are on the outside of the boxes when they arrive here! We also deliver trees, skis, and suitcases when people move."

She chuckles as she recalls Tom Pierce playing jokes on the staff over the years, "like putting the flag upside down so people would come in and ask if we were in distress!" Pierce, who at the time owned the Rochester Electric Co., once put a sign on the bulletin board saying stamps were half price, so Sugie retaliated by putting up another sign saying RELPCO customers would be getting a 10% discount, "and one person took that seriously!"

In 2002, Sugie received the Hero and Hard Worker award from the Springfield District of the U.S. Postal Service. The previous year, the Rochester Post Office had gotten the Star Award from the district for having all its daily work, reports, etc. done on time over the previous year.

The current vice president of the Route 100 Lions Club, Sugie is also active with St. Elizabeth’s Catholic Church and fundraising for Pierce Hall Community Center, and has acted as a mentor at Rochester School.

Although she won’t be at the post office, Sugie hastens to point out that she’s not moving out of town and has plans to work part-time substituting at the school, and perhaps apply to be a paraprofessional there. Her other plans include a dream trip to the Italian Alps, near the borders of Switzerland and France, where her father, Teno Balestra, came from. The family of her mother, Giacomina Carrara, came from there, too.

Sugie, whose sons will give her a party later on, says she hopes people will stop by to see her on her last day, "because I know I’ll be sad. It’s been my whole life."

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