Education.
After Lopez, I attended Daytona Beach Junior College and Florida State University and graduated with a Masters in Library Science.
Work.
I worked as a Librarian at the University of South Florida and Florida Atlantic University, the State Library of Florida, and Leon County Public Library. In 1978, I went to work for a small company out of Massachusetts which sold computer systems to libraries and we moved to the Boston area in 1980. Got laid off from there (1982) and landed a job at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) as a Computer Networking Consultant.
Worked for DEC in the Boston area until 1989 and then transferred to the local office in Tallahassee. In 1994, I was laid off from DEC and went back to the State Library of Florida to manage their computer systems and networks. I retired from the State in September, 2000.
Family.
I married Pamela Fannin in 1966 and we had a daughter, Lisa, in 1969 and a son, Tom, in 1976. Pam died in 1982 after battling cancer for six years.
Upon moving back to Tallahassee in 1989, I met Paula Guidry at an American Legion dance. We were married in Hope Town, Abaco, Bahamas on 7/9/97 (a nice easy to remember palindrome).
Leisure.
Paula and I sold our house at Oyster Bay and moved into a 35 foot Hitchhiker fifth-wheel trailer in 2003. For a year we lived at the Tallahassee RV Park while Paula finished up her 30 years with the State of Florida. We hit the road in 2004 and did "work camping" around the country. Typically we would stay at an RV park for five or six months and work for a few days each week in exchange for an RV site. Anyone interested in more about this should visit our web site at pdonovan.net.
We lived "full-time" in our fifth-wheel until 2011, when we bought a townhouse in Tallahassee and a manufactured home in Polson, Montana. Now we spend our summers in Montana, and winters in Tallahassee.
Paul Donovan
850-508-7997
p_donovan AT usa.net
After graduation, Paul attended DBJC and Florida State University (Go Noles!), where he earned a BA in English and an MS in Library Science.
He worked at a couple of university libraries, at the State Library of Florida, and at Leon County Public Library in Tallahassee before moving on to CLSI and then Digital Equipment Corp (DEC). After being laid off from DEC in 1994, Paul returned to the State Library of Florida to run the computer systems and networks that kept the library going. He retired from the state in 2000.
In 2003, Paul and his wife, Paula Guidry, sold their home on Oyster Bay in Wakulla County and began to live "full-time" in a 36 foot 5th Wheel trailer and travel about the country.
As of 2009, they spend their summers in Polson, Montana and the winters in Florida, or traveling somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere.
To see what they have been up to lately, visit their web site at pdonovan.net.