Penn State Fayette Campus icon retires
That's understandable, since she is a school icon who predates the campus itself.
When she came to the new Penn State branch in 1966, classrooms were all over downtown Uniontown, including the basements of the Central School and the Second Christian Church.
'People kept saying this was Basement U,' Hovanec remembered.
She pointed out that the school library was on the second floor of a flower shop on Beeson Avenue, 'where the rib place is now.'
The proud daughter of a Fayette County coal miner, Hovanec was excited about the opportunity to teach English at Penn State Fayette Campus.
'We were building something new,' she said. 'I had a brand new master of arts of English in my hands and I was able to come home.'
Hovanec's route to higher education was a circuitous one. After graduating from the old Mt. St. Macrina Academy in 1955, there was no money for school and she went to work as a clerk for the old Berkowitz Pajama Shirt Factory.
Although she would work at Berkowitz for four years, she continued her education, taking courses part time, first at the old Waynesburg College Center (also located at Central School) and later at Duquesne University, where she earned her bachelor's degree in history and English after six years as a part-time student.
This experience has allowed Hovanec to identify with the many adult 'nontraditional' students Penn State Fayette Campus has served over the years.
'I was a nontraditional student before there were nontraditional students,' she said. 'I understand what it is to work your way up.'
Hovanec taught grade school at the old St. Joseph's Roman Catholic School in Uniontown for two years, and high school English in the Pittsburgh school system, before returning to Duquesne for her master's degree.
At Duquesne, she took classes with Dennis Brestensky, another graduate student, who would become one of Hovanec's prime partners at Fayette campus in mining the region's rich coal and coke heritage.
Hovanec recalled talking to Brestensky one day 'in the stacks' of the Duquesne library, when he told her excitedly he had a job at a new Penn State branch campus - in Uniontown.
She later interviewed for a position of her own at Penn State Fayette Campus with its founding CEO, Hugh Barclay. 'She struck me as one who could make a contribution,' Barclay recalled last week.
In 1968, the first structure at Fayette Campus, the three-story Eberly Building, was built on a pasture, on Route 119 just north of Uniontown (An $8 million renovation of that building is nearing completion.)
But Hovanec recalls that in the early years the wind was horrendous as it swept across the open campus. She said a number of mounds were installed and the school even celebrated an annual 'mound day.'
With 11 buildings now dotting the campus, including the Biomedical Technology Center completed last year, it's hard to imagine the scene.
Over the past 35 years, generations of area students have passed through Hovanec's classrooms.
'I see people that come through and I recognize names,' she said. 'The thing I like most is seeing students in the community in positive roles.'
Hovanec earned her doctorate degree in American literature in 1973 from the University of Pittsburgh.
Hovanec also had a hand in creating the curriculum at Fayette Campus, particularly the American Studies - 50 and American Studies - 402 courses that explore the coal and coke era, and the immigrant experience in the region.
'I think what happened here is an epic story,' Hovanec said.
Students taking the courses interviewed relatives and acquaintances who had worked in the mines and lived in the coal patches, recording hundreds of oral histories before they were lost forever. Some were included in the book 'Patch Work Voices.' Edited by Hovanec, Brestensky and Al Skomora, the self-published volume became a regional bestseller and was later picked up by the University of Pittsburgh Press.
The Patch Work project sponsored seminars on coal mining topics, and published several additional volumes. Hovanec is soon to publish a book on the women of the coal patch, the result of nearly a decade of interviews, research and writing. The English professor said she will continue to write in her retirement.
After years of effort, a coal and coke heritage center was also established on the lower level of the library.
Hovanec said the two things she is proudest of are the generations of students she taught and the establishment of the center.
Hovanec said the center has the potential to serve as the research library for the study of the immigrant experience during the early part of the century. While most immigrants came to large cities, they settled in a rural area in Fayette County to work in the mines. Hovanec said that makes this area 'kind of special.' After 130 years, she noted, various groups have retained their customs, from ethnic foods to the blessing of Easter baskets.
Although she is retiring, Hovanec will remain a familiar face on campus.
She is maintaining an office at the school, and will continue as a mentor to students, and as a director of the coal and coke heritage center.
Hovanec was honored with a reception at the center last week. She will also be the main speaker for commencement on Saturday.
