My name is Horace Dudoit and I’m a Honolulu District accountable paper clerk. I help to distribute orders of stamp stock — and occasionally, Priority Mail Flat Rate Boxes — to the district’s Post Offices, ensuring the offices have what they need to serve our customers.
I’ve worked for the Postal Service for almost 34 years, all of them in the same facility. I was a clerk at the Processing and Distribution Center for more than three decades before I moved into another role and eventually got this job.
I’m very happy here; my supervisor was patient and made learning a new position comfortable. Our manager affords us the opportunity to try different jobs within the department so that we’re able to better understand the various roles everyone plays in our organization.
My job has given me the opportunity to raise my family and provide them with a home. My wife, Nani, is head secretary for a local school. We’ve been married 33 years and have three sons: Bryson, 36, a Marine who now works for the Honolulu Fire Department; Kalei, 31, a marine machinist who is married with a 4-year-old daughter, Elle; and Kaipo, 26, who will soon get his master’s degree in natural healing and also is an actor who has appeared on “Magnum, P.I.”
When I’m not at work, you can catch me with my Grammy Award-nominated musical group, Ho’okena. We’ve been together for 34 years and performed twice for a sitting president and even played at Carnegie Hall. Not long ago, we collaborated on a song with country musician Josh Turner. He and his family were on vacation in Hawaii and while in his hotel room, he heard us on the radio and got in touch. The rest is history.
I feel blessed to have a job during the coronavirus pandemic, a time when many on our island aren’t working. I’m so grateful that I have had a career that allowed me to do the things I love, raise my family and pursue my musical dreams. Best of all, it now allows me to spend precious grandpa time with Elle.