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For 27 1/2 years, Jasper A. ''Jack'' Drye watched as his
Postal Service domain grew from a store corner niche to modern offices
with computers. ''He was really proud of
improvement, the computer field and changes to keep up with the times.
He was happy to see it compete with other services,'' daughter Carolyn
Griffin of Charlotte said Saturday.
Mr. Drye died Friday at home in Yaupon Beach near Southport [North
Carolina] of pneumonia
and a stroke. He was 63.
His postal career began in England when, as a paratrooper injured in the
Normandy invasion, he was given noncombat duty as the company mail
clerk. He later participated in the Battle of the Bulge and other World
War II battles and earned medals from the U.S. and several European
governments.
He returned to his log cabin birthplace at Richfield
and in 1949 paid $427 for the equipment in the third-class post
office in the Crowell & Ritchie
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Hardware store. His postal patrons doubled, and in
1963 a new building housed a second-class post office.
In the latter part of his career, he saw the arrival of modern machinery
and computers, and his original post office equipment was stored in a
special cabinet he built.
In 1976, Mr. Drye retired to Yaupon Beach with his wife, Claudine, a
former New London postal clerk. An avid fisherman, he also collected
coins, antique bottles, guns and furniture. He was a member of Richfield
United Methodist Church, VFW Post 6369 and the Richfield-Misenheimer
Volunteer Fire Department.
Funeral will be 2 p.m. Monday at Hartsell Funeral Home in Albemarle.
Other survivors are son, Jeffery Drye of New London;
brothers, Clyde Drye of Albemarle; Benny Drye of Richfield;
sisters, Mrs. Gladys Dellinger of Charlotte, Mrs. Melvin Barringer of
Salisbury, Ms. Betty Drye of Richfield.
(The Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, NC, 10 Nov
1985, Page 22A - courtesy of Tedd Cocker)
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(courtesy of William Poplin)
Grave markers for Jasper A. and Claudine L. Drye in the
Richfield Cemetery, Richfield (Stanly county), North Carolina.
Jasper enlisted in the army a Camp
Croft, SC on 30 November 1942 and served in Company I, 508th PIR.
Pfc Drye was awarded the Bronze
Service Arrowhead device for participation in the Normandy assault.
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