Beloved UPS Driver, Sherrod, Retires

By Katie McFadden

After a nearly 35-year career with UPS, with more than 25 of those spent delivering packages to residents from Rockaway Park to Neponsit, Sherrod Grant is ready to hang up the brown uniform, with his final day on Friday, March 27. And Rockaway will certainly miss their regular delivery man. As one neighbor said, “What are we gonna do without him?”

“He’s been in everybody’s life all these years. He’s become a part of our family,” Kathy Roberts at the Harbor Light, where Grant stops in for a coffee each day, said. “He’s just unbelievable, such a good guy. Everyone is devastated that he’s leaving. We’re gonna miss him terribly.” It’s a sentiment shared by many in the neighborhood. “He’s a great guy. We’re gonna miss him,” Jim Mullen of The Graybeards said.

Grant, originally from Brooklyn but now living in Staten Island with his family, has found another hypothetical home in Rockaway after getting to know the neighbors for more than two decades. He began his career with UPS on October 31, 1991, at around 21 years old, working for the company part time. By 2000, he became a driver and shortly after, he was assigned a route in Rockaway.

“When they told me about Rockaway, I didn’t want to go out there. I didn’t know anything. But my first day, my supervisor went out with me, and I just loved it. I’ve been there ever since,” Grant said.

Grant said he first started on a route from Beach 117th to Beach 139th and Breezy Point, but as online ordering became bigger and bigger, the job and the routes changed. “When we started getting busier, they made new routes and split them. There were only two of us and then they made four or five routes, so I deliver from Beach 129th to 149th,” he explained.

Working for so long in the area, Grant has seen Rockaway go through everything, from the crash of Flight 587 in November 2001 to Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, and the Covid pandemic in 2020. “The first day after Sandy, I thought the last thing people wanted was to see me,” Grant said. “But they were so happy to see me, it just gave them a sense of normalcy.”

After all, Rockaway has embraced their local UPS man like a family member. “Kathy treats me like family. I went to the Harbor Light to use the bathroom one day, and she said come in any time, my door is always open. She’s so sweet. Now every day I stop in to get a cup of coffee,” Grant said. “Then I have a customer who’s always making me scones and others that give me cold water on a hot day. I have another customer, Meryl, who lets me use her garage as storage to leave my bag. I’m even offered dinner sometimes.

“The people all make me feel like I’m family, everybody,” Grant said. And it’s a family he’s grown up with, while growing his own family, a son and a daughter, with his wife, Pamela, “I’ve watched children in Rockaway grow up and have their own kids. One of my favorite things is during Halloween, seeing all the kids dress up as UPS men.”

And he’s been there for the residents in return. In December 2019, Margaret Quartuccio wrote a letter to The Rockaway Times, calling Grant an “angel” for trying to help her get into her running car after the door handle broke off when she stopped by his truck to hand him a package.

Sherrod’s wife, Pamela, is grateful for the kindness her husband has been shown over the years. “They’re really kind and compassionate people. As he’s driven by, every day he started to learn about everyone’s life there and it’s just amazing seeing how much everyone has cared for him through all these years. It’s mind blowing,” Pamela Grant shared. “I’m glad he had that route.”

That’s why leaving is bittersweet, but Grant says at nearly 57, lifting heavy packages isn’t as easy as it used to be, so he decided it was time to retire. “I’ve been telling people I’m retiring and there’s been sadness, tears, people saying they don’t want me to go,” Grant said. “I don’t want to go, but the body is saying it’s time. It’s a rigorous job.”

But it’s a job he’s grateful for. “It’s been an excellent career. I have no regrets. UPS is a great company to work for. When my son was born, he’s 22 now, all the customers were sending me stuff and UPS even had a blanket made for him. It’s been nothing but kindness across the board,” Grant said.

After officially retiring, with his last day on Friday, Grant said he plans on getting some much-deserved rest. “I’m gonna take is easy,” he said. He also has plans to travel more, especially in the summer with his wife, who is a teacher.

But he says he’ll make sure to make some trips out to Rockaway. “Everyone said I better come back,” Grant said.

And he’ll certainly miss his route. “I want to thank all of my customers for making my job so easy and embracing me the way that they did,” Grant said.