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MAKAWAO - Like father, like daughter. Makawao Postmaster Celine Balthazar-Suda is this year's Bill Balthazar Award winner.

The award is in memory of Balthazar-Suda's late father, who also was a Makawao postmaster, and it honors outstanding leadership in the United States Postal Service Honolulu District, which includes Hawaii, American Samoa, Saipan, Guam, Rota and Tinian.

Emil "Bill" Balthazar died in 1988, but he is remembered as a tireless Makawao postmaster who would make sure Christmas presents were delivered by Christmas Day and hand-stamped tax returns up until midnight on April 15.

Balthazar-Suda said she wanted to win the award to make her father proud.

"I hope to be half as good as you are," Balthazar-Suda said she told her father while at his bedside when he was sick.

"I know you will be better," she said her father replied.

Balthazar-Suda said she worked hard to achieve the award. It was established in 2007. Last year, Kahului Postmaster Sheila Apana took the honor.

"This is the top leadership award, and I wanted to ensure that this was my way of saying I have fulfilled my promise to him," Balthazar-Suda said.

But she also credits her staff of 22 at the Makawao and Pukalani post offices. (Pukalani comes under the jurisdiction of the Makawao Post Office.)

"I work hard. I do it. I love my job, just like my dad. It's just a part of me. It's not me that should be recognized. It is my employees, my staff and most of all my family, my husband and my daughter, who have given up relentless hours," Balthazar-Suda said, adding that she spends 10 hours in her job on a normal workday and is in touch with post office staff seven days a week.

But her employees and bosses say Balthazar-Suda does indeed deserve the accolades. In 2005, Balthazar-Souza was also named Hawaii's postmaster of the year, the first time the award was given.

"Celine received the (Balthazar) award because of her commitment to her customers, employees and the Postal Service in general. Like her father, she understands that being a postmaster is more than just a job. She is a passionate and relentless advocate for serving her community. The Balthazar postal legacy is in good hands," said Daryl Ishizaki, USPS Honolulu District manager, who chose her for the award.

Balthazar-Suda's grandmother, the late Virginia Freitas, and her mother, Agnes Balthazar, have all worked for the Postal Service, and her husband, Calvin Suda, is senior clerk at the Pukalani Post Office.

Agnes Balthazar said she was very happy and was touched that her daughter won the award named after her late husband.

"I was happy and thanked God. She works very hard. She gives everything to the post office, sometimes too much," she said.

Agnes Balthazar said her daughter is very much like her father, who would drop everything to help out at work even on her days off.

She said she cried because her daughter has worked so hard.

"She has now completed her highest goal in her postal life, her dad's award," Agnes Balthazar added.

"To me, she really deals with us as ohana," said Jenny Farey, a rural carrier with Makawao Post Office for 10 years. "When it comes to leadership, she's firm but flexible. But she's also compassionate and understanding with individual situations that come up."

For example, Farey said that when her grandmother died eight years ago, Balthazar-Suda quickly got her on a plane as soon as she could to be with her family.

"She goes above and beyond my boss. She's my friend."

Another rural carrier, David Camp, who has been at the Makawao Post Office since 1997, said his boss is an inspiration.

"She's very fair and willing to listen to anything and is interested in our safety and all of us doing a good job," he said. "She really goes above and beyond. She's not a 9-to-5 person. She goes out of her way, even she's not feeling well. She takes care of us first." Camp remembered a time when Balthazar-Suda had been sick but found time to call an employee to wish the worker a happy birthday.

Balthazar-Suda said she follows her father's advice when it comes to being a good manager and listens to her employees.

She said he told her to "'listen to (her) heart and walk in their shoes."

Balthazar-Suda said she knew what her father meant.

"You have to know what their needs are. It's a two-way street," she said.

She added that she runs a "tight ship," and especially with the downturn in the economy the post office has to be efficient and good at what it does in order to retain the customers it has as well as attract new ones or those that have strayed.

Balthazar-Suda said she recognizes that people are using the Postal Service less and faces competition from parcel delivery companies. She responds by stressing that employees provide good customer service.

"You will go to an expensive restaurant because you are getting good service," she said. "They will come back to us. The money is out there. Otherwise there wouldn't be a FedEx or a UPS (United Parcel Service). The money is out there. We need to instill the importance we are number one. We give the best service.

"We'll draw the people back to us," she said. "I feel the Postal Service will be able to pull together and come out of this."

If there's one to pull everyone together, it is Balthazar-Suda and members of her staff.

She said that in February, her Makawao and Pukalani post offices were the only ones in the Honolulu USPS District to receive the highest "star" performance in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Voluntary Protection Program, which involves following rules in workplace health and safety.

She called achieving the tasks "very tough to do" because everyone has to work with federal agencies' numerous guidelines and the program includes an inspection, including interviews of all employees.

She said employees volunteered their time to put on workshops to promote safety awareness.

Under Makawao postal clerk Heath Kusumoto, the Upcountry post offices achieved the status after five years of hard work, Balthazar-Suda said.

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.