ROBERT MOON (POSTAL INSPECTOR)

'Robert Aurand Moon' (April 15, 1917, Pennsylvania, USA—April 11, 2001, Florida, USA), sometimes called 'Mr. Zip', is considered the father of the ZIP Code or Zone Improvement Plan, a mechanism to route mail in the United States. He developed the idea in the 1940s while working as a postal inspector in Philadelphia, although his system used only the first three digits of what would become a five-digit system. The first Directory of Post Offices using five-digit zip code numbers was published in 1963.