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 Aue retired last week after 18 years of service with the United
States Postal Service. Aue’s coworkers dubbed the last several
months on the job “Hacker’s Farewell Tour” as the beloved carrier
made it known a long time ago of his plans to retire, pending
approval from wife, Elaine.
Hacker, by the way, is a nickname that has stuck with the man since
he was 14 years old. As a freshman at Lincoln Community High School
in 1968, he was given an old practice jersey in football that had
the name “Hacker” on the back of it and as he says, “It stuck.”
Long before the days of being called Hacker, though, he was Steven
Otto Aue. Aue was born on March 27, 1954 in Terre Haute, Indiana.
His parents were Robert and Mary Ann (Holmes) Aue. The family moved
to Lincoln when he was around 5 years old and his dad operated a car
dealership here called Aue Buick.
 A young Steven attended St. Patrick’s School for one year, that year
being the final year of the school’s existence. After St. Patrick’s
was demolished, he attended Carroll Catholic School. Aue went on to
graduate from Lincoln Community High School in 1972.
After high school he held a variety of jobs that included selling
cars and working road construction on Interstate 55. He also worked
at Puritan Springs and Meyers Industries in Lincoln before landing a
job as a Mail Handler at the United States Postal Service on Cook
Street in Springfield.
Aue worked in Springfield for a year and a half before transferring
to Lincoln as a City Carrier. As a City Carrier he was first what
they call a PTF Carrier and then a T6 Carrier. Basically, he is what
you could simply call “a floater.” He covered a different route
every day and knew the in’s and out’s of all the neighborhoods in
Lincoln. On the flip side of that, pretty much everyone in town
knows Hacker and can recall a story about him with a smile.
Last Tuesday Aue was recognized by Lincoln Postmaster Edmund
Carley for his 18 years of service. In his brief speech on the
workroom floor, Aue quoted his former coworker Steve Shanle, “I
won’t miss the work but I’ll miss the people.” He then added, “When
I think of you guys it won’t be for very long but it will be with a
smile.”
Before returning to his case that morning he pointed to yours truly,
who is going to attempt to be the new T6 carrier, and said, “If this
young woman can fill my shoes we will call her “Little Hacker” and
followed that up jokingly with, “You don’t have very big shoes to
fill.”
Finally, in true Hacker form he told everybody, “Don’t text me
today. I lost my phone.” He then quickly got back to work without
any further fanfare.
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Later in the day the missing phone was found.
Apparently Hacker delivered his phone with the mail on Monday
while he was delivering City Route 3. A customer found the phone
in the mailbox and returned it to the regular carrier on
Tuesday, who then returned the phone to Hacker. Once you start
delivering your own cell phone with the mail, indeed it is time
to retire.
Looking ahead to retirement, Aue plans to golf a lot and work at
Culver’s when needed. Yes, he will continue to work as he and
his wife of over 30 years, Elaine, own and operate the local
Culver’s. He has taken a lot of good-natured teasing about
playing “Scoopy” at the home of the Butterburger, but only time
will tell if he puts on that outfit.
He will have to put on another outfit, a tuxedo, come September
for the wedding of his daughter, Kristan. Kristan also just
earned a nursing degree in December of 2015 and was that ever a
“proud dad” moment.
Aue is also a proud father of son Nathan, who works for an
internet pawn store and lives in Kansas City, Kansas. As a dad,
Aue cherishes those moments when Nathan can come home and they
can hit the golf course together. “Family first” has always been
something Aue has stressed to his coworkers, truly over and over
again, throughout the years.
Lastly, as a proud new retiree of the USPS he offered this
advice, “You gotta take care of the new carriers and show ‘em
the ropes because the old carriers took care of us young guys
coming in.” Aue also wanted to recognize those letter carriers
that came before him, noting that “they all helped me in my mail
carrier duties.” Naming guys like Steve Shanle, Pat Ryan, Gary
“Wiener” Liesman, Bill Gober, Terry Haseley and Mark Humbert he
said, “I appreciate all those guys and what they did for me.”
Congratulations, Hacker, on your dedication to the USPS. We
appreciate your service and we wish you the best of luck in
retirement!
[Teena Lowery]
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