Post Office to be named in honor of late WWII veteran

The Port Washington Post Office will be renamed in honor of Joe Demler, a World War II veteran who spent much of his career working at the Port Washington post office, where he became the assistant postmaster, Mayor Ted Neitzke announced Tuesday.

Neitzke said a renaming ceremony set for 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 18, will be attended by dignitaries and politicians, including Sen. Ron Johnson, who with Sen. Tammy Baldwin sponsored a bill to rename the post office in Demler’s honor, and Rep. Glenn Grothman.

“Since Joe Demler had such a long career at the Port Washington post office, even meeting his wife there, the senator thought it would be a very fitting tribute,” Renee Riddle, Johnson’s Wisconsin communications director, said last year as the bill advanced through Congress. “The Demler family agreed.”

“It is fitting that this building will bear Joe’s name so that his contributions to his community and country will always be remembered,” Baldwin said at the time. “Joe Demler bravely served our country during World War II, and deserves to have his service and sacrifice to our nation honored.”

Demler, who died on Feb. 5, 2020, at his Port Washington home, was the face of the Stars and Stripes Honor Flight, which adopted his motto “Every Day is a Bonus” as its slogan.

It was a mantra Demler followed after surviving life in a prisoner of war camp for three months after he took part in the Battle of the Bulge. When the camp was liberated, doctors estimated that Demler was three days from death.

A famous photo of an emaciated Demler lying in a cot taken when the camp in Limberg, Germany, was liberated was published in Life magazine. Demler was dubbed the “human skeleton” and for many people it personified the cruelty of the war. 

After the war, Demler returned to Port Washington, married his wife Therese, raised three children in their home on Douglas Street and worked for the Post Office for 37 years before retiring.

Demler participated in the Stars and Stripes’ first honor flight.