THE POWER OF
PAT DONOVAN BY SARA WHALEN SHIFRIN ’88, P’19,’23
W
hen I arrived at Gould in 1986 at 16 years old, Pat Donovan was the school nurse. I’d see her on the fields, the courts, and in the dorms with sons in tow. She always had a quick smile and knew names. One day, I needed a break from school and faked a fever by putting the thermometer on the radiator as Pat tended to another student. I rely on Brian Walker’s tribute of Pat to capture what happened next: with “an electric kindness and with a gleeful twinkle in those ‘can’t fool me’ eyes,’ Pat said, “I think you could use some time to yourself. Head to bed and let’s have a cup of tea when things settle down.” Pat’s compassionate and kind care is the baseline for her life’s work at Gould and, as Walker continues, “her kindness was immediate and deep, as familiar as the sun.” For 39 years, Pat (née Power) and Neil Donovan have made the Bethel community their home –raising a family, nurturing lifelong friendships, pitching in with community projects, developing leadership groups at the local schools, and showing thousands of students and parents how to live “lives of purpose, action, excellence, and compassion in a dynamic world.” Recently, I sat down with Pat in the IDEAS Center after a morning of Winter Carnival games and asked her to tell the story of how she and Neil came to Bethel. With the low slant of winter light, she weaves together people and place — never wanting to miss recognizing how someone helped her journey. In the late ’70s, Neil worked for a youth enrichment program and brought young people from inner-city Boston to the woods and mountains across New England. He fell in love with the Bethel area and began to dream of it as home. Pat laughs. “I was such a city girl!” she admits.
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As she reflects on her transition to Maine, her deep roots for teaching and learning become clear. With her heart set on eventually working at Boston Children’s Hospital, she started her career at the Boston VA Medical Center, gaining a breadth of experience in nursing and intensive care. Working at a teaching hospital exposed her to the highest order of team teaching. “Working at the teaching hospital was a gift,” she says. “I learned that everyone’s voice counted regardless of rank. Everyone was on a first-name basis and respect for each other’s strengths was demanded.” I am aware as we talk that I am sitting with a trailblazer. Pat began her career at Gould as a part-time nurse. Working with students “felt great and very natural,” she says with a big smile. “I am the oldest of seven, you know. I can take care of kids.” She breaks out in an indefatigable smile. It’s good to see her pride break through decades of behind-the-scenes work. Head of School Don Fudge saw the need for an energetic full-time person to “keep the wheels on the bus” of physical and mental health. So in 1981 Pat joined the faculty as a full-time nurse. She raves about the wonderful nurses and teachers she has worked with over the years as the Donovans grew as a family at Gould and in the community. “Ki and I arrived in Bethel a year or so after Pat and Neil did,” recalls Head of School William Clough, “Pat as the school nurse and us as the newly minted headmaster couple. While our kids were off in college and not part of the Gould Academy scene, theirs most certainly were; and over the 18-year span we spent together they gave the whole Gould community an inside look at how to raise four sons from infancy, have lots of fun, and model how to care deeply for hundreds of Gould students and faculty families — all at the same time.”
