Have a Dog-gone Good Retirement!
Center lunch celebration
December 1, 2015

The news that Karen Kovalchick, our Center’s Assistant Director, is retiring spread rapidly. Karen is so central to us that the thought of her leaving is outside our normal conceptions. She has been working in the Center for twenty years. In academic terms, if you count one generation as the time its takes for a new PhD to secure tenure, Karen’s time with us has spanned 3 generations.

There is much that happens behind the scenes in the Center that no one sees. Someone has to manage the staff and the operations in the office. Someone has to keep track of the elaborate Center financial accounts. Someone has to make sure that Fellow applications are collected and collated; that offer letters go out to prospective Fellows; that their visas are in order; that the stipends are paid; and so on and on and on. If it is not done, everything will grind to a halt. Karen has been the one who has made it happen, hidden behind the scenes, year after year.

What is not hidden is just how much Karen worries about each Fellow’s welfare. Fellows see that the moment they enter the Center and Karen shows them around. It is as if she has anticipated every worry and every concern. She has answers for all of them.

Every Fellow has a story to tell. Many find in Karen a new, personal friend. If you are a dog-lover, that is almost assured to happen.

Finally, as Director, I have been immensely grateful that Karen has been my Assistant Director. She has the wisdom that only comes with decades of experience in the Center and with the years she spent before that in the Provost’s Office. I have relied on her again and again to reassure me that what we are about to do is the right thing; and for a tactful warning over the foolhardiness of some bright idea that has me momentarily in its thrall.

Well before we staff in the Center had fully absorbed the significance of Karen’s departure, the Fellows had decided that something must be done to make the occasion. The thought seemed to spring spontaneously from their good hearts. Karen does not like a big fuss. So the best plan seemed to be an ambush. Over many weeks, in hushed meetings in offices and hallways, the details were decided.

We would have an end-of-term lunch in the Center, timed so Karen could be back home to care for her dogs. Everyone would bring in something to eat and then, at the right moment, the surprise would be sprung.

That is just what happened today. It was not one surprise, but a sequence of them. A beaming Mike kicked things off, hands in his pockets, with an announcement of the surprise.

Nancy, our official opera-singer-in-residence had composed a version of the "Twelve Days of Christmas" devoted to dogs, Karen’s deep love. Karen listened in amusement as we worked through the list. At twelve, we had a surprise ending: a shout of “A CAT!”

Here are the words:

Next was the presentation of dog-themed tea towel.

Then Mike had arranged for a surreptitious email to past Fellows inviting memories and messages. By the time of the event, he had assembled over 40, with still more coming in. That was the next presentation.

And then there was the decoration of our tree. I had long ago reconceived it as a “science tree,” erected in celebration of the winter solstice. This year, however, it would become a dog tree. The work study students, under Joyce’s direction, had prepared dog garlands. There were more dog-themed decorations.

Finally, there was the cake. It is a Pittsburgh tradition, that every visitor encounters at least once: a burnt almond torte.

All in all, it was a lovely event, done just right. It was all done without a single speech. Yet Karen could be in no doubt of the feelings of warmth and gratitude from all of us in the Center and its extended family.

Then we ate.

John D. Norton