Mailing our letters, humming a tune, chatting with students, performing on stage-Bill Bowen does it all. Known around campus as the "singing mailman," Bowen's professional and recreational life entails much more than stamps and packages.

Bill Bowen

Years at Brandeis: March 12 marks his 25th year on campus, but Bowen's Brandeis career actually extends back to 1971, when he worked on WBRS radio show called "Your mother should know." The show, which featured Big Band music and talk and radio personalities, continued on a Boston radio station until 1981.

Role at Brandeis: Senior mailroom clerk



Q: What does your job entail?

A: All the ordering-stamps, also mail sorting-I do that too. I'm kind of a jack of all trades.



Q: What is your favorite part of the job?

A: Interaction between myself and my customers-students, staff, faculty. I love that contact.



Q: What do you do in your time outside Brandeis?

A: I do professional theater in Boston. I was recently in Arsenic and Old Lace. I was Teddy; I was the guy screaming 'Charge!' and running around. I was also Jack in Brighton Beach Memoirs.



Q: Are you originally from the Waltham area?

A: Yeah, right nearby. I found out about Brandeis because I was tuning the radio and I came across WBRS, a show by Saul Poulten. He's the kid who then did the show with me when I was at WBRS.



Q: When did you first perform on campus as the 'singing mailman?'

A: I've been singing here for several years-I sung at parents' weekend, at a coffeehouse in October. I'm going to sing at the Pajama Game coffeehouse in March.



Q: Do you have a favorite song to perform?

A: Older songs, that came around when I was growing up. I really like jazz and big band from the era before that also. And ballroom.



Q: You dance too?

A: Yeah, I sing, I dance, I'm a fool. Now what can I say?



Q: How do you balance your time between Brandeis and the theater?

A: All of that happens after my eight hours here.



Q: Performing aside, what is your favorite type of music?

A: I like jazz; I like the singers like Sinatra. But just because I like this music doesn't mean I don't like Outkast or anyone else. I like that song "Heeeeeya." [Starts singing].



Q: You keep up with current music, too?

A: Yes, one must grow. Otherwise you stagnate.



Q: What is the strangest thing anyone has ever mailed?

A: I've had insects being sent through the mail-for science.



Q: Do you have any other hobbies?

A: I collect Big Band music. I have quite a large collection. I also have 20,000 hours of radio from the old days of radio. I collect and repair old tube radios and phonographs that your great grandparents wound up. Everything is a hobby. And of course I also have my theater. I'm pretty busy.



Q: What has changed most about Brandeis during the time you've been here?

A: The school has expanded a great deal, by almost 1,000 students.



["Stop in the Name of Love" comes on the radio in the mail room].



Q: Do you like this kind of music too?

A: I went to my first concert at Brandeis-a Supremes concert-in 1965, when I was still a kid.



Q: Anything else you want Brandeis kids to know about you?

A: No, I don't think so. Thanks for thinking of me.