Story by Jon Stalnaker AKA The Studebaker Dude
It’s difficult enough to navigate the aging process where you have to face the reality that your days are limited, when you also have to say goodbye to friends and family that came to the end of their days. Especially when they are younger than you. I’ve whined about being one of the remaining two siblings in a family of five, but at least I’m the youngest. However, people don’t die in seniority order and I suppose that is how it should be. I just hang on to the idea that God is absolutely in control and He knows what he is doing. That is ultimately what keeps me from going off the deep end in this crazy world we live in.
I found out last week that one of my favorite co-workers in 36 years with the postal service had passed away. His name is James Cockerham and I would like to say a few things about what made him so special to me. Being one of the top on a long list of wonderful and inspiring people that I worked with is significant because there are so many greats on that list.
I first met James when we were working in neighboring stations in the city of Sacramento. I was the acting station manager at Colonial and James was a supervisor at Parkway. I could tell immediately that there was something special about this guy and we would talk frequently about how we get things done when managing a postal operation. He and I shared a common methodology about how to treat employees and how to motivate them to do their best. It wasn’t really something that was taught in management training programs and was quite contrary to how our peers did things. But it worked for us and we were quite successful in meeting goals because of it. I can best put that concept to words by saying “treat your employees like champions and they will be that, treat them like idiots and that’s what they will be”. My wife, Carlene, got a job at a city close by and had to pick up express mail at the Parkway office from time to time. She told me that she met a really nice supervisor there and when I asked her his name, it was James Cockerham. She also took an immediate liking to this guy as he was very charismatic. I told her that I knew him and liked him very much.
We parted ways when I was promoted to Postmaster in Dixon. We would see each other occasionally at district meetings. Years later when the supervisor position at Dixon became vacant, I ran into James at the District Office and asked him to apply for the job as I would love to work together with him. He did, and since I was the one choosing the candidates, he was a shoo in. We worked together for the remainder of my postal career and I worked to prepare him to take over the postmaster job. Unfortunately for him, he was very much like me and I was not politically savvy enough to not alienate myself from the upper management. He probably didn’t get the job because they viewed him to be another me and they were just so happy to see me retire.
We stayed in touch a little bit and the last time I got to spend with him was at his retirement party. We were friends on Facebook but he wasn’t that active on it for the last several years. He knew I moved to Oklahoma and I dreamed of him taking a trip and stopping by the Boyd suite for a visit. Well, that never happened and now I found out why. He was suffering from kidney failure and had some heart valve problems. He also had some dementia issues so that explains why I hadn’t heard from him in a while. I always considered him more of a brother than a coworker. He was a beautiful person with a heart of gold and I miss him immensely. On the outside, he didn’t really look much like me, but on the inside, we could have been identical twins. Congratulations on making it to heaven bro, say hi to Jesus for me. Love You Man…
