The undisputed father of the first three digits of the zip code. Born in Pennsylvania in 1917 and seemingly destined to become a postman, Moon won a scholarship to Duke University. In order to support his education, Moon got a job as a postal clerk in Pennsylvania, hoping to transfer to North Carolina at a later date. Never Happened. He was assigned to the Chicago area , but homesick, he transferred to Philadelphia.
He first submitted his idea for coding addresses by digits in 1944, because he believed that the then existing rail-based system would no longer be adequate for huge volumes of mail. His proposal was ignored, but his determination prevailed, and finally in 1962, H. Bently Hahn persuaded the Postal Service panel to go with five digits, including the first three, Mr. Moon's, which delineate about 900 geographic areas.
Mr. Moon passed away the other day in zip code 34748.