FREEPORT – The entire Freeport High School student body and staff were on hand when school let out last Friday afternoon to throw Nan Pummill an unforgettable retirement party.

Pummill, secretary for the high school administration and a 1965 Freeport High graduate, knew that something was in store. Latin teacher Erin Taylor had passed out the green slips of paper, which Pummill uses to keep track of school staff, for everyone to wave as Pummill walked out of the school. But as she made her way through the long line of students and staff who presented her flowers along the driveway, Pummill saw a big surprise.

Principal Bob Strong, who also is retiring, escorted Pummill across the street to the waiting L.L. Bean Bootmobile. Driver Keith Smith was about to give her a grand tour of town, including her old Wolfe’s Neck neighborhood.

“I just want to say this has been the most wonderful surprise,” a gleaming Pummill said as she sat in the passenger seat. “I will never forget it, ever.”

Following the tour, teachers and staff gathered at the Freeport Community Center for Pummill’s retirement bash.

Pummill began her tenure at Freeport High 25 years ago, as a guidance secretary. She left briefly, then came back to work for the school administration.

Jim Lincoln, a guidance counselor, and Craig Sickels, the athletic administrator, were on the committee that planned the farewell. Pummill will conclude her duties at the school within the next couple of weeks.

Lincoln, who has been a guidance counselor at the school for 31 years, has worked closely with Pummill.

“She takes pride in her work,” Lincoln said. “She’s never been afraid of technology. When she started working with me, she was typing on an electronic typewriter.”

Lincoln said that Pummill is adept at engaging with the faculty.

“She is joyful,” he said. “She’ll do morning announcements. Once in a while, she’ll lose her place in the middle of a morning announcement, and the whole school will hear her start laughing.”

“This is her fourth principal,” Lincoln said. “Nan is really the glue that’s held this place together over the years. She’s kept four different principals happy.”

Pummill was a majorette in high school, and voted the best-looking girl in her class. She and her husband, Don, have two children, daughter Holly and son D.C., who graduated from Freeport High.

Strong agreed with Lincoln on Pummill’s importance to the school.

“She can do so much and always with a smile on her face,” Strong said. “Just a can-do person. In all seriousness, she is the reason we can do all that we do. I’ve worked with six others and I’ve never met anybody as versatile.”

Strong also appreciates getting honest responses to questions. Pummill was considering retirement last year, he said, but Strong had another year to go.

“She agreed to stay one more year,” he said.

Pummill said that she and her husband Don will drive out to Lake Powell, Ariz., and rent a houseboat there for a week, in “the trip of our dreams.” They will take their time driving back to Maine, including a stop to visit her husband’s family in Missouri, Pummill said.

Then, it will be retirement in the traditional sense of the word, she said.

Freeport High School students and staff wave green slips of paper and present flowers to retiring secretary Nan Pummill, escorted by retiring Principal Bob Strong, as she makes her way through a line of well-wishers outside the school last Friday afternoon. Nan Pummill’s retirement party from Freeport High School began last Friday when she was escorted to the awaiting L.L. Bean Bootmobile, which took her to various locations around town before returning to the party at the Freeport Community Center.