Bill Pask, who has died aged 93, will be remembered in north Norfolk for running the Oulton Street Post Office stores, near Aylsham, for 30 years with his wife Bess.
Mr Pask's parents ran the shop before they took it over in the 1960s, with Mr Pask retiring aged 63, in the 1980s.
The Pask family has been in Aylsham for several generations and he was the fourth generation to be named William Alfred Pask.
He wrote a book 'The Heart of the Village' about his family and Aylsham, which was published in 1994, and he had started on a follow-up. The book sold about 550 copies.
Mr Pask's widow Bess, in Mill Road, Aylsham, and their son David, who lives in Cambridgeshire, have paid tribute.
Mrs Pask said: 'We would have been married 71 years on October 23. We celebrated our 70th wedding anniversary last year. The bridesmaid from our wedding was at that celebration.'
Mr Pask was a hairdresser before they took on the shop. He served with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps in the Second World War in North Africa and Italy.
His son said: 'He used to deliver tanks and heavy lorries to the troops, and he escorted German prisoners of war on his own. They were only too glad to have been captured, as they'd had such a bad time.
'He also saw the aftermath of the Battle of Monte Cassino. I 'face-timed' him when we went on holiday to Italy to show him what it looks like now.'
He added: 'The family was always the central part of his life. He also loved singing with the Methodist chapel male voice choir and the Bure Valley Singers, who lasted about 40 years. He had a very good tenor voice. And he sang with the Aylsham Trio.'
A great-grandfather, in later years he organised a school reunion for pupils who had been at Aylsham Boys' School in the late 1930s.
He died at North Walsham and District Memorial Hospital on September 10.
The funeral service will be at Aylsham Methodist Church on Wednesday, September 20, at 2pm.
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