Patrick Michael Donovan was my best friend. I considered him a brother.  This is his story.

He grew up in Fort Washington Maryland.  He had one sister, Gail and two brothers John and Jimmy.  His mother Lorraine was a kind and loving women.  His Father was tough and distant.

Patrick described his childhood as a wonderful time.  The family had a condo in Ocean City were they spent many wonderful summers. He went to Catholic elementary, middle and high school.  His favorite past time at this age was playing pranks on his siblings. Crank calls were his favorite.  In middle school Patrick showed an affinity for learning languages.  He was fluent in French and learned some germ.  The highlight of his middle school years was a trip to Paris.

While in high School his parents divorced.  The family could not afford the expense of Catholic school so Patrick went to a public high school his senior year. He also started what can only be thought of as a series of jobs that provided support for the family.  Patrick remembrances of these jobs provided an unending series of funny stories.

Patrick first job was at Pizza Hut.  His boss was the beautiful Melissa Underwood.  Patrick said she ran a very tight ship nd actually scared him sometimes.  He buckled down and worked hard and quickly earned her respect.  One of the perks of the job was that he worked with his friends from High School.

Melissa sold him her old car.  A GEO Prism that had seen better days.  He paid 500 dollars for it. When he re-connected with Melissa many years later, he convinced her he still had it. For a second or two,  she actually believed him.

His sister Gail got into College and needed a car.  Patrick gave her the GEO.  Only Gail could not drive a stick shift.  Patrick, who later in life would teach difficult technical subject to thousands, said, "I think being a driving instructor is the hardest job."

Patrick next job was bank clerk at Andrews Air Force base. The position required him to work with wives of  Air Force Officers.  These women came from Germany and Korea.  Patrick learned both languages and got a good grasp of bank accounting.  A co-worker, Ian was from the United Kingdom. When he returned home he invited Patrick for a visit.  They spent the summer traveling in the UK.

When he got home Patrick went to PG Community college and worked nights making donuts.  Over his life, Patrick earned numerous technical certificates.  He was proudest of his SharePoint ones but there was a special moment as he brought out his dough master diploma from the donut place.

Patrick did well at PG and made it into Maryland.  He earned a degree in business management.

Patrick first job out of college was with an office supply company.   They had sales contest.  These were always won by a mean and pushy women who had developed large clients who would place large orders when she asked. She always won. Patrick figured out how to beat her.  He waited until the last possible moment to place his orders. She had already left. Patrick placed the orders and won,

Realizing that alienating the top sales person did not lead to a secure future, Patrick moved on. He studied Microsoft access.  He learned databases and eventually got a position with a company specializing in database management.  He learned Oracle and got certified in cold fusion software.  In technology, Patrick was the man! 

He was hired by a leading consulting company.  They had 25 people on the project.  They worked day and night.  Patrick noticed they were not focused on results but created mountains of paper but never completed anything of value.  He quietly finished the project.  Trained the customer and left.

Patrick worked at NASA for over 20 years.  With his co-workers Lorna Londot and Bill Gallagher they brought many technical products to completion.  At NASA Patrick set a record as the man who joined the most clubs and organization.

He formed a Toastmasters club.  A volley ball team. (he named it the Bolshevik).  He befriended a Russian programmer named Michael Szdelis who taught him Russian. He joined the Goddard Players, played soccer, softball and was the president of the Science Fiction Club.

His greatest triumph at NASA was hiring me.  It was a phone call from him at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.  He described the job, which did not appeal to me.  Patrick's enthusiasm and technical knowledge impressed me and I joined him at NASA.  Thus began a team of Patrick and Ed that would last many years.  Patrick was the catalyst of the team and was the glue that held it together.  

Barbra Gray had work at NOAA for many years.  She had the office next to Patrick.  I sat in the office to her left.   Tim McLaughlin completed the team.  The four of us built out an IT infrastructure for NOAA.  It was built with the latest technology and worked well.

The boss, Bill McIntyre, was so pleased he allowed Patrick and I to work on other projects.  We developed several high profile system for the head of NOAA. 

To keep up our skills Bill sent us to IT Training.  Patrick and I attended 10 week long training sessions at Learning Tree International. Learning Tree liked Patrick and I. Well mainly Patrick.  They hired us to teach.

When I first met Patrick he was over weight about 30 pounds.  He told me, "Ed I want to get into shape."  He hired Owen Lentz a brilliant personal trainer.  It took awhile for Patrick to realize that smarting off to Owen resulted in a tougher work out.  He caught on and lost the weight.  Owen taught Patrick how to work out and he built that into his life.    

Patrick was the best instructor Learning Tree ever employed.  He ran his four day classes like a Marine drill instructor who was a stand up comedian. His students enjoyed the class and always gave him high marks. 

In one class, a student was a belly dancer.  Patrick had her perform.  She insisted on training giving the class a quick class on Belly Dancing!! The pictures are on this site. 

Patrick trained all over the US but his favorite place to train was Rockville where his two good friends Octavia and the Rockville administrator worked.

Patrick and I took a SharePoint class at Montgomery College.  They loved Patrick and offered him a job.  In addition to SharePoint, Patrick taught a large range of technical subjects.  As at learning tree Patrick poured his hart into it.  

the student reaction was incredible.  Montgomery college said he was one of their bestyt instructors.

They sent him to India to assist in the setup of technical training program!

Patrick crossed the river way to soon.  I realize death is final and in this case, just cruel.  I had a dream last night.  It was a beautiful sunny day and I was parking my car at NASA.  Patrick walked up and extended his hand.  He greeted me with his standard greeting, "Buddy"