MOUNT GREENWOOD — The crowd outside of the post office at 3349 W. 111th St. in Mount Greenwood on Sunday wasn't there to mail holiday packages.
Rather, hundreds of friends, family and Chicago firemen assembled at 3 p.m. to honor Chicago Fire Capt. Herbert T. "Herbie" Johnson, 54, of Morgan Park. The post office was renamed for the 32-year Fire Department veteran who died Nov. 2, 2012 while battling a fire in Gage Park.
“Naming a postal facility honoring Capt. Johnson is not just a tribute to him and his family, but to all first responders who bravely put their lives on the line every day, often for people they don’t even know," U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-3rd) stated in a press release.
Lipinski attended the ceremony along with Ald. Matt O’Shea (19th), Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago as well as Johnson's wife Susan, their sons Thomas and Michael and their daughter, Laurie.
"An outgoing, caring, and dedicated public servant, Herbie Johnson was and is a hero,” said Lipinski, who championed a bill to rename the neighborhood post office.
The Capt. Herbert Johnson Memorial Post Office Building was unveiled just two days after another firefighter from the Far Southwest Side, Dan Capuano, was laid to rest. Capuano, 42, died early Monday while battling a fire in a vacant warehouse in South Chicago.
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