COEUR d’ALENE — Weekday visitors to the Starbucks on West Prairie Avenue are likely to meet Pops.

Pops — whose real name is Al Perrella­­ — has been holding the door open for customers at the coffee shop for the past 10 years.

It’s not the only job he’s had. Not by a long shot.

Perrella lost an eye in an accident as a boy. When he later tried to enlist in the Navy, after the dawn of World War II, he was turned down. He didn’t let it stop him from serving, or from going to sea.

“I had a buddy of mine say, ‘Hey, come join the merchant marines instead.’ So I did,” Perrella explained. He spent more than two and a half years traveling to and from the South Pacific, delivering oil to tankers.

He made it home safely, married Margaret in 1953 and started teaching shop classes in Kansas high schools. He was good at it, and lauded as Outstanding Teacher of the Year in 1971, 1977 and 1978. After the merchant marine turned teacher retired from teaching, he and Margaret moved to Coeur d’Alene. She died in 2018. Perrella’s son, Ron, moved in to be with his father.

They have a routine, one that begins early. Nearly every day at 6 a.m., the two men head to Starbucks to see their friends. Those friends recently decided to honor their good buddy — for serving his country in wartime, for dedicating his career to kids and for the simple, decent kindness of holding the door open at his neighborhood coffee shop.

They chose an apron, custom-embroidered with “Pops. Serving since 1928” and reveled in the act of surprising Pops with it Wednesday morning.

“You’ve got someone who served in World War II and taught for 26 years. That’s over 4,000 kids he has impacted. We thought it would be nice to honor him, as our friend,” Pops’ pal Randy Hayes said.