Born in 1925, Carl T. Stevens, Jr. worked as an Industrial Engineer for the Tucson Post Office from 1973-1990. During that time, his responsibility was to help to improve the productivity of postal operations. He received frequent commendations for his work, including one for increasing the productivity of the Tucson Post Office while cutting spending, one for perfect attendance, and also credit for bringing positive national attention to the Tucson Post Office. He was recognized throughout his career for his innovation in equpment design as well as system improvements.
Stevens was the editor of "Pride", the newsletter for the Tucson Post Office, first published in 1974. According to Postmaster Elias, "The basic theme was to let everyone in the Tucson mail processing operations know what's happening in their post office, that they can be truly proud of what they are doing and where they are working...The Pride bird was to be the symbol of the newsletter. It is a cartoon character that gets involved in various postal operations without having any physical or facial characteristics that could be identified with any specific individual, but could generally be associated with everyone..."
Mr. Stevens was a professional artist and exhibited his work in Arizona and Texas. His works were in a variety of media, including oils, acrylics, pastels, ceramics, pen and ink, charcoal, and silk-screen. He was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree from Texas A and M University. Prior to his work with the US Postal Service, he worked as a Missile Engineer.
From the guide to the Carl T. Stevens, Jr. Collection, 1948-1994, (Postal History Foundation, Peggy J. Slusser Memorial Philatelic Library)
