Forty-four years ago, Kathy Bamat reported to work, and a legacy began. In 1970, Physical Plant was mainly located in Old Main. Kathy's office was in 401 Old Main, and her first job title was Book Keeping Machine Operator B.  

One Ringy Dingy

When Kathy started, OPP actually had a telephone switchboard in 401 Old Main connected to every single OPP employee. When a call came in the operator would say "Good morning, Maintenance and Operations, who would you like to talk to?...One moment please...then she would patch them in and hang up the phone." There is no record of Lily Tomlin ever working at Physical Plant, but her character, Ernestine might have!

Just Call Us M&O

Kathy was in the Accounting Office for 20 years, then spent time in Operations and ended up at the Work Control Center. "When I started working at Physical Plant it was called M&O (Maintenance & Operations). There was a PPM&O (Physical Plant Maintenance & Operations) group and a PPP&E (Physical Plant Planning & Engineering) group." The merger of these groups formed OPP as we now know it.

The Print Room and the Design room were in the basement of Old Main. The third floor contained the managerial offices and the Commonwealth Campus offices, and the fourth floor had just the accounting office, employee benefits (H.R.) and the senior managers offices.

Girls Wore Dresses, Not Pants

"I worked in Old Main for the first 14 years. The worst part was walking from the parking lots to Old Main. In those days girls didn't wear slacks, we wore dresses to work. When it was cold, I would wear sweat pants and boots under my dress. We would cut through the HUB to stay warm between buildings because it was a good 10-minute walk between the parking lots and Old Main."

Houston, We Have a Mini-Skirt Problem

"Women working in Old Main had to wear skirts for many years, and it was a long time before dress slacks became accepted. It was that way in offices all over campus. There actually was an Old Main dress code until about 15 years ago, and you would be called in if your skirt was too short. They sent people home because their short shirts were disrupting the men! The men were simply spending too much time checking out skirt lengths. I know it sounds crazy, but this was a real problem! Nowadays everything is just more casual."

Moving Up to Park Avenue  

"Space in Old Main was limited, and M&O people used a lot of space. We took up most of the basement, the 3rd floor and the 4th floor. Moving M&O out to Park Avenue freed up half of Old Main for other uses. That's when they expanded this building and added a second floor. I was one of the first groups to come out here, and our accounting office was in room 214."

For a few years everyone in OPP worked in the Park Avenue building except for the Waste Water Treatment Plant and the West Campus Steam Plant. Everyone reported to this building, and it was one big happy family. As the campus grew larger, OPP had to expand. "Now I see staff people in the hallway and I have no idea who they are anymore.  

Controlling Work Control

After Kathy became Director of the Work Control Center, her work day began at 7 a.m. by checking her e-mail and calendar and preparing for meetings. She had a lot of walk-in traffic about building, mechanical or funding problems. 

"I became an explorer. What exactly is wrong? Is it fixable? Do we need a replacement? I would weave through until we had enough information to make a decision and then asked for their expert opinion on the problem. What do you think will work?"

"Over the years I have depended heavily upon my staff. Everyone who works for me does a fantastic job. Our great employees with great skills have made the Work Control Center successful. For instance, Rod Barner came out of tech service with incredible systems knowledge. He was a heat and vent guy who remembers everything about every piece of equipment in every mechanical room. I would ask him about building X and he would say that's an XYZ steam system with blah, blah controls...and I would think, how in the hell did this man become a walking database! Tom Haupt, Harry Gearhart, Denny Hackenberg and the rest all come out of the same mold, and their service to Penn State is invaluable."

You Can't Patch Forever

Back in 1992 Kathy only had $5 million in the major maintenance budget. That funding had to cover the entire campus, including all roads, mechanical systems, sidewalks, roofs and masonry.

"At that point, I was saying, hey, we need more money! All we could do was patch. There really wasn't enough funding to do much else. Soon Old Main provided a Capital Renewal fund from the state and we were able to start replacing roofs. We had a great roofing crew, but you can't patch forever!"

Kathy Philosophy 101

"When I started in 1970 there was no computer, no Excel, no Word, no spell check. You had to type everything manually. If you had too many mistakes, you had to pull out the paper and start over. It took a lot longer to do everything, but now expectations are higher and you are expected to do more. There is so much to do that sometimes we don't have time to step back and appreciate who we are and what our employees are doing. We need to leave time to develop collegiality."

Retirement

Kathy is married to Brad Bamat who introduced her to NASCAR, and now she is a bigger fan than he is. They both enjoy Key West and plan to spend some time on the gulf coast of Florida. They are definitely sun and sand people, but will continue to live in central Pa.

Kathy is also a bookaholic and loves to read historical novels. Her current favorite is "Killing Lincoln" by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard. In retirement Kathy will finally have more time to read, watch NASCAR and travel to Florida. She will also continue to be active with the Penn State Blue Band, and we all hope that she visits Physical Plant whenever she passes by. Good luck to Kathy and her 44-year legacy of valuable service to OPP!