4 A
❘
WEDNESDAY EDITION
❘ JULY 13, 2016
Siuslaw News
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
RYAN CRONK , EDITOR
❘ 541-902-3520 ❘
EDITOR @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
Opinion
E XTRAORDINARY P EOPLE
Leo Stapleton
C ATHERINE J. R OURKE
For the Siuslaw News
_____________
the weather, or even “feeling under
it,” deter him. The indefatigable 82-
year-old rises early every morning to
make his rounds for the cause.
“I get tired sometimes,” he said.
“But knowing the good it’s doing
motivates me to keep going.”
A recent bout of walking pneumo-
nia didn’t stop Leo from making his
appointed rounds. Instead, he got on
his feet to help others get on theirs.
“Four families still found me,”
Leo said with a laugh, describing
how he supplied a walker, wheel-
chair, shower stool and bedside com-
mode. “I felt the worst I ever have in
my life, but I never miss helping
people out.”
That includes bringing cookies to
the VA hospital in Roseburg for 22
years. As a retired veteran who looks
out for his military family, Leo
traces his Navy roots back to his
teens.
Born in Colorado to a farm work-
er with 11 children, Leo moved to
Oregon at age 7 when his family
traveled west to follow the harvest,
eventually moving to Florence in
1947.
“I didn’t want to get stuck behind
a desk,” he said. “I just wanted to
join the Navy my whole life.”
So Leo enlisted at 17 and began a
24-year Navy career as an aerial
photographer in 1951.
“N
either snow nor rain
nor heat nor gloom of
night stays these couri-
ers from the swift completion of
their appointed rounds.”
While that slogan describes Leo
Stapleton’s 20 years as a former
rural carrier for the Florence postal
service, it sums up his current work
supplying medical equipment at no
charge to people in need. It also
reflects his lifelong passion: helping
others in all weather, at all hours.
“Some weeks I don’t stop from
daylight to dark,” Leo said. “If
there’s an emergency, if it’s a week-
end, I don’t care; they’re going to
get what they need.”
Although he retired from the
USPS in 1996, Leo devoted another
20 years to volunteer endeavors. For
the past three years, he has made it
his mission to collect, clean and
repair used medical equipment, lend-
ing out walkers and wheelchairs to
the disabled. Turning his home into
a warehouse and operating out of the
Elks Lodge thrift store, Leo often
works seven days a week at his own
personal expense and will not accept
any payment in
return.
“The secret to happiness is to love
According to
him, the word
what you do and do what you love.”
around town is “If
—LEO STAPLETON
you need it, Leo
will get one.”
“My objective is to supply every-
“I thought I died and went to
body’s needs so they can get outside
heaven,” he said, describing how he
and enjoy life,” he said. “I really
got the chance while stationed in
enjoy taking care of people and
California to work with famous pho-
keeping them mobile.”
tographer Ansel Adams.
While it’s no simple task, Leo
When Leo retired from the Navy,
doesn’t let things like weekends or
he made a beeline back to Florence,
turning down big jobs with Kodak to
work in construction and the lumber
yards in the town he loved instead.
It was love at first sight when Leo
met Shirley and proposed on their
first date. Now married 57 years, the
couple raised two children and
adopted two others.
“Florence was the place I always
called home,” Leo said. “It’s the
friendliest place in the world.”
He fondly recalls sitting around
the pot belly stove at Bill
Karnowski’s outboard motor repair
shop under the shadow of the
Siuslaw River Bridge, listening to
Bill’s yarns about how he helped
build it in the 1930s.
“People here help each other,”
Leo said. “If anybody needs some-
thing, this community makes sure
they get it. You can’t find that any-
where. It’s a loving, caring town
that’s a magnet for volunteers.
Wherever I go, I’m proud to say I’m
from here.”
Leo joined the postal service in
1976, delivering more than just mail
to the folks on his route. Whether
bringing fresh crab to shut-ins or
supplying “milk and hogs,” Leo
became a surrogate Santa for what
he calls “the little folks” of the
Florence community. Once he took
time off from his job, without pay, to
move a crippled woman on his route
to her new home.
After retiring in 1996, he devoted
nine years to assisting local fisher-
men for 14 to 16 hours a day.
Nicknamed the “Dockside Saint,”
Leo unloaded the boats, ran the
hoists and fixed the ice machine,
often during the wee hours before
dawn.
“I did whatever they needed and it
was mostly things that would’ve
never gotten done,” he said.
His pay?
“I got lots of fish and crab,” he
PHOTO BY CATHERINE ROURKE
Leo Stapleton volunteers from dawn to dusk with his dog Rockin’ Bob
at his side, “helping folks in need in the friendliest town in the world.”
boasted. “But the best part was giv-
ing away sand dollars.”
Leo pulled dozens of sand dollars
from the crab traps, bleaching them
and handing them out around town.
He also volunteered for Florence
Food Share and served 28 years on
the Lane County Road Advisory
Committee.
“I did it so I could help all the
poor people,” he said. “I really enjoy
looking out for the interests of the
little guy.”
That includes kids, and one of
Leo’s most memorable equipment
“matches” came when he found a
wheelchair for a 3-year-old. The
family sent Leo a photo of the child
visiting the Oregon Zoo in Portland.
“That one was worth a million to
me,” he said. “It was the best payoff.”
Leo started out with four crutches,
four walkers and one wheelchair.
Today he has over 200 walkers and
40 wheelchairs loaned out and, on
an average week, he assists six or
seven families.
“This is just who I am and what
I love doing,” he said. “The secret
to happiness is to love what you do
and do what you love. The good
Lord put me here to help people
and I’m just doing my best to live
up to it.”
______________________
Catherine J. Rourke is an award-
winning writer, journalist and book
editor who teaches creative writing
at the Florence Regional Arts
Alliance. She may be contacted at
CJReditor@gmail.com.
LETTERS
I asked Google, “What year was the FBI
hacked?” and it turns out that the FBI, the CIA,
the DHS and many other government agencies
have been hacked “for years.”
Maybe the government should consider hir-
ing Hillary’s email server. “Let he who is with-
out guilt cast the first stone.” Seems to me I
have heard that one since I was young boy.
Al Anderson
Florence
Delightful DMV
I moved to Florence in August 2015 and of
course you must make several changes because
of the move, which includes DMV. I was dread-
ing this because all dealings with the Arizona
DMV are nightmares, extremely rude and
downright mean clerks that go out of their way
to make your visit to their office as impossible
as they can.
Well, what a delight it was to visit the Florence
DMV — pleasant clerks with smiles on their faces,
professional work ethics, great sense of humor and
just an enjoyable 30 minutes. I have had to go in on
four occasions for additional vehicle registration
items and each time it was the same atmosphere
from all the employees.
What a joy to take care of the necessary
DMV business dealings in nice surroundings
with great one-on-one service. Thank you.
Ralph Jackson
Florence
L ETTERS P OLICY
Assault weapons
Are assault weapons “hardware”? I think not.
Rather, they probably are a good revenue source. I
cannot think of a good reason for a hardware store
— in this case True Value Hardware — to carry
assault weapons for sale.
This is a small community. Very few fences
or gates. Everyone is friendly. Neighbors help
each other.
After many people dead from mass shootings
just in the last month, why, in a town like this,
does any store carry assault weapons?
Madelyne Barnett
Florence
Hillary’s emails
The political conversations regarding Hillary
Clinton’s emails: I guess Hillary was lucky dur-
ing her service as Secretary of State. She didn’t
have any hacking of her emails.
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Pres. Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
TTY/TDD Comments: 202-456-6213
www.whitehouse.gov
Gov. Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
900 Court St.
Salem, OR 97301-4047
Governor’s Citizens’ Rep.
Message Line 503-378-4582
www.oregon.gov/gov
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
541-431-0229
www.wyden.senate.gov
FAX: 503-986-1080
Email:
Sen.ArnieRoblan@state.or.us
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley
313 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753/FAX: 202-228-3997
541-465-6750
State Rep. Caddy McKeown
(Dist. 9)
900 Court St. NE
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1409
Email:
rep.caddymckeown@state.or.us
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (4th Dist.)
2134 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6416/ 800-944-9603
541-269-2609/ 541-465-6732
www.defazio.house.gov
State Sen. Arnie Roblan (Dist. 5)
900 Court St. NE - S-417
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1705
West Lane County Commissioner
Jay Bozievich
125 E. Eighth St.
Eugene, OR 97401
541-682-4203
FAX: 541-682-4616
Email:
Jay.Bozievich@co.lane.or.us