ET classes

Elmer T. Klassen , fully Elmer Ted Klassen (born November 6, 1908 in Hillsboro , Marion County , Kansas ; † March 6, 1990 in Palm Harbor , Florida ) was an American businessman who served in the United States between 1972 and 1975 States Postmaster General exercised.

In California grew classes, never a college attended, began after his high school graduation as a messenger boy for the settlement of the American Can Corporation in San Francisco to work. He rose steadily in the company that manufactured tin cans and finally became its president on April 28, 1965. In 1968 he unexpectedly resigned from this post after a dispute with the company's chairman .

In 1969, Klassen joined the United States Postal Service . Until 1971 he served as Deputy Postmaster General and thus as deputy to Winton M. Blount . He played an important role in the implementation of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, which provided for the conversion of the Postal Department into an Independent Federal Agency. In July 1971, as a representative of the Postal Service, he signed a collective agreement with seven postal unions, which represented around 600,000 employees.

In the same year he became the first Postmaster General to be appointed from the Postal Service's Board of Governors instead of the US President . He held this office from January 1, 1972 to February 16, 1975; then he retired and moved to Florida. At this point, however, there were already more critical voices from politics about his administration, which concerned financial and organizational problems.

literature

• Elmer T. Klassen , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 47/1973 of November 12, 1973, in the Munzinger Archive ( beginning of the article freely available)

Web links

• ET classes in the database of Find a Grave (English)