The Postmaster Who Licked Stamps

Wisconsin Tax Commissioner John A. Gronouski, 43, didn't know a ZIP code from a postal zone. Habitually, he forgot to mail his wife's letters, carried them in his pockets for weeks. His most prolonged contact with the mail service was in 1960, when he "licked a lot of stamps" for John Kennedy in the Wisconsin primary. But last week the President appointed Gronouski his new Postmaster General to replace J. Edward Day.

The appointment was criticized as being blatantly political. Editorialized the Milwaukee Sentinel: "Our pride must be tempered by the fact that the appointment is obviously political . . . He was an early Kennedy supporter and his name is Polish, a coincidence which is likely to make some Kennedy votes next year among the heavy Polish-American populations of Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania and New York." Asked about all this at his press conference, President Kennedy said blandly: "I think we just happen to be fortunate that his grandparents came from Poland."

Polish or not, Gronouski performed ably as Wisconsin's tax commissioner for the past four years, helped revamp the state's whole revenue system. A Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin, he is an affable, pipe-smoking ex-college professor whose air of rumpled relaxation is deceiving. He is a driving administrator, has worked twelve to 16 hours a day himself, and expects his staff to do the same. He is a militant Democrat who drew constant fire from Wisconsin papers for his partisanship while tax commissioner--a nonelective office. But even state Republicans have grudging respect for him. Said one last week: "He's a surprisingly good administrator. And you just can't stay mad at the guy."

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