Stephen Kochersperger has been named USPS historian, a role he assumed on an acting basis in December.
He succeeds Jennifer Lynch, who retired last year.
Kochersperger began his USPS career more than 40 years ago, first as a clerk in Milesburg, PA, and then as postmaster of Julian, PA, where he served for 25 years.
In 2011, he became a writer/editor for the former Capital Metro Area. The next year, he joined the historian’s office at USPS headquarters in Washington, DC.
Kochersperger spearheaded two recent oral history projects: arranging interviews of employees with 50 or more years of service for the 50th anniversary of the Postal Service’s as creation an independent federal agency in 1971 and interviewing postal executives on how USPS handled delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic.
His master’s thesis was on the postal system’s role in American independence.
Kochersperger is a distant cousin of John Wanamaker, the 35th postmaster general, and is related to Charles Kochersperger, the defendant in an 1860 court case that led to the development of the Private Express Statutes, which guarantee the Postal Service’s exclusive right to carry letters for compensation.
“Postal history is in my blood, quite literally,” he said.