Friday marked the end of an era at St. Tammany Health System.
Fifty-five years to the day of her hiring, STHS Benefits Coordinator Pat Pope retired, ending a career she started as a 17-year-old business office clerk in September 1966.
She leaves as the longest-tenured employee in the health system’s 67-year history.
“I suspect we may never experience such a half century of individual service again,” St. Tammany Health System President and CEO Joan Coffman told Pope in a midday celebration of what has been a legendary run.
“When you began your career in September 1966 at what was then St. Tammany Parish Hospital, we were a small, community hospital with just 45 beds to serve the citizens of St. Tammany Parish,” Coffman added. “You have witnessed the transformation of that small facility into the health system we are today. Your servant heart has been there, supporting our colleagues in their administrative and personnel needs, all this time.”
Coffman was just one of a number of well-wishers attending Friday’s sendoff, which was marked by a lot of laughter and hugs, a few tears, a lunch of meat and potatoes – Pope’s preferred menu – as well as a cake boasting purple icing. (“My favorite color,” Pope said.)
STHS Director of Compensation and Benefits Michelle Chaix noted that when Pope started her St. Tammany career – during the administration of President Lyndon Johnson, incidentally – she earned $1 an hour and had to have her parents sign a form allowing her to take the job.
Over the decades that followed, she would make a name for herself as the go-to person for questions about employee benefits – and one who wasn’t above hand-holding to make sure her colleagues were properly taken care of, a characteristic that earned her widespread esteem.
It also earned her a dedicated parking spot in 2011 to mark her 45th work anniversary. On Friday, the sign that once adorned that spot – now framed – was presented to her, along with a handful of other gifts and a 55-year service trophy.
“I thank all of you,” Pope said. “I’ve enjoyed my time here, I really have. I grew up here.”
Although the sign for her parking space is gone, Pope won’t go unremembered.
Shortly before Friday’s ceremony, a tree was planted in her honor just outside the Human Resources building in which she worked along 8th Avenue.
“It is a Japanese magnolia – strong and hardy,” STHS Director of Employment and Employee Relations Amy Gowland said. “As it grows, we’ll think of you.”