Donald Zittel
Born:
Died:
Married:
Children:
Donald Zittel was a summer resident of Upper Saranac Lake who delivered the mail on the lake by boat beginning in 1988.
Tupper Lake Free Press and Herald, September 5, 1990
Magazine recalls century of boat service on Upper Saranac
Mail delivery by boat on nearby Upper Saranac Lake is the subject of an article in the August issue of The American Philatelist, journal of the American Philatelic Society, the largest organization of stamp collectors in the U.S.
It features photos of the Island Chapel and of Donald P. Zittel, a retired Bell Aerosystems engineer, delivering the mail from his 18-foot Starcraft motorboat, carrying on a dockside service that dates back about a century on Upper Saranac Lake.
Recollections of early mail service on the lake were contributed by Clarency Petty, now of Canton, whose mother served as postmaster at Coreys from 1911 to 1938. The little settlement midway between Tupper and Saranac Lake was named for Jesse Corey, pioneer settler on Upper Saranac Lake in 1830. In his boyhood the Coreys postoffice was a room in the family home and mail was transferred by horse and wagon to and from the landing, and distributed by the steamer Saranac which made two circuits a day to the camps around the lake, --one of the Adirondacks' largest, extending some eight miles from north to south and two miles across at its widest point.
A native of Lancaster, N.Y., and a graduate of Clarkson College where he. majored in electrical engineering, Mr Zittel helped develop the ascent engines of the Apollo Lunar Excursion Module, the power source which enables U.S. astronauts to return safely to their mother ship and earth. He began vacationing in the Adirondacks in post-college years and in 1980 bought a couple of acres along the eastern shore of Upper Saranac where he built an attractive log home and a garage to house two treasured cars, -- a 1913 Model T Ford and an even rarer 1923 Rickenbacker, -- one of only 40 remaining of the 40,000 originally built.
He landed the four-year mail contract on the lake in 1988, where his delivery season runs from June 15 through September 15. After the lake "ices up" delivery reverts to a Star Route for year-round residents, based in Saranac Lake village. His mail load on the lake ranges from about 15 stops at the beginning of the season to about 70 at its height, with the Girl Scouts at Camp Eagle Island "major customers", accounting for up to three or four mail bags when packages are sent from home.
Cruising the scenic lake, greeting friends along the way and spotting an occasional otter, beaver or mink are all part of "the best job in the world", he comments. The Upper Saranac shore is still dotted with a number of the so-called "Great Camps", built between the turn of the century and the 1930s by many nationally-known families, among them the Jules Bache, William Rockefeller, Lewisohn and Seligman families. Others are more down-to-earth, their docks festooned with American flags, drying towels and swim suits, and kids in shorts and tee shirts eager to lend a hand as the mail boat maneuvers in close.
Occasionally chased by storms to the shelter of an empty boat house; he says it's a very calm ride most of the time. Most of his customers have mailboxes at the end of their docks; others use everything from hand-tooled leather bags to surplus gasmask containers. De-parting from traditional postal hazards, dogs are no problem for the water-borne mail man, and thanks to a morning work schedule, he usually manages to keep dry. "The Lord has been pretty good to me and only lets it rain in the afternoon", he said.