Return To Myrtle Creek

Since leaving Myrtle Creek in 1982, Matt Boyd has traveled the world, worked for the government on classified projects and been a part of space shuttle launches with NASA.

It was exciting. It just wasn't enough. Boyd wanted to come back home.

"I wanted to become more rooted, go back more to family values," he said. So, last February, he did. Boyd, 42, moved back to Myrtle Creek, leaving behind high-profile jobs in big cities.

He also put an end to 100-hour work weeks for himself. He found more time to be with his family. Boyd became a Myrtle Creek resident again and is glad he did.

"We basically decided to change our whole life and do what we wanted to be doing," he said, referring also to his wife of 10 years, Paula.

Boyd, a 1982 graduate of South Umpqua High School, started the shipping business Goin' Postal in Myrtle Creek's Valley View Plaza.

It offers shipping through every major carrier and the U.S. Postal Service. Boyd also provides eBay services, including helping people sell their items on the auction site.

It's the second Goin' Postal franchise in Douglas County. Boyd credits the owner of the Green store, Dave Smith, with helping him get started.

Boyd said they will send customers to each other's stores, depending on who is closer, to make it easier on residents. In returning to Myrtle Creek, Boyd decided starting a new business was his best path to success.

"There's not a whole lot of calls for ex-spacecraft trackers," he said. Boyd spent 13 years working for NASA, managing control center network operations. There are framed certificates in Goin' Postal that Boyd received for being involved with various missions.

Those included the Mars Pathfinder launch and the Galileo Project that sent a spacecraft to explore Jupiter.

"My primary job was to make sure everything was orchestrated, up to the minute, 24 hours a day," he said.

Before NASA, Boyd was a signals analyst in the Air Force. He was in 11 countries in four years and worked mainly on classified projects. He then worked for the Department of Defense.

Boyd's career kept him constantly moving. He often traveled between Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., New York and California for his job. He said he had a boat in Philadelphia, but he only had time to put it in the water once or twice. Now, he said, he finally has time to go fishing.

"I think I always wanted to come back, but I kept so busy," he said. Now that he is back, he wants to be more than just a business owner. He wants to give back to the community.

He is already a member of the Myrtle Creek-Tri City Area Chamber of Commerce. He is also impressing other business owners around town. "I think he'll do well because he has the right attitude," said Linda Johnson, president of the chamber and owner of Myrtle Creek's Ye Olde Art Shoppe.

Boyd has Lions Club donation boxes in his shop. He sells cards that benefit the Seniors Driving Seniors program, taking no profits for himself from their sales. He also goes out of his way to help customers. He once asked a customer if he could open her package and re-pack it.

In doing so, he made it more compact and saved the person $40 on shipping.

Boyd said it might seem insignificant, but that person's pleasure gave him a sense of satisfaction that convinced him that moving back to Myrtle Creek was a wise decision.

"There's a lot less stress involved trying to make somebody happy on the other side of the counter," he said

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