Pam Donovan retires from OFA; receives an honorable send-off

At Owego Free Academy (OFA), when student-athletes are about to board a bus to go compete in state playoffs, their peers and teachers line the hallways and “clap them out.”

On Tuesday, Feb. 21, OFA students, faculty and staff clapped Pam Donovan out of the high school, honoring her retirement at the end of that school day. Pam exited OFA a district employee for the last time that afternoon after 22 years working for OA. Her last position held was as secretary to the principal.

Pam (OFA Class of 1975) was a freshman the year the current high school opened. Fitting, then, that her photo accompanying this feature finds her seated in new chairs alongside an old friend. She said the Appeal to the Great Spirit sculpture has been situated in the exact same place since she – and it – arrived on site to start the fall 1972 school year here.

“OFA is a family of brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, kids and parents and grandparents,” she said. “It’s been that way since the day I walked in the door.”

A week or so after officially retiring, Pam has already enjoyed waking up when she feels like it, followed by lunch or shopping with family, if the mood strikes. Mid-afternoon naps aren’t too shabby either, she reported.

Pam and her husband Tom will now plan a Hawaiian vacation, she said. And she’s hoping to “mentor teens.”