Our People: Suzanne West familiar face in area

Long-time Clovis and Portales residents are likely to say "you look familiar" to Suzanne West when they encounter her at KENW studios on the campus of Eastern New Mexico University.

She has been working in Clovis and Portales since she and her husband John moved to Clovis in 1991 in connection with John's service with the U.S. Air Force. John West passed away in May 2020.

Before settling in at KENW 17 years ago, Suzanne West worked in records for the Clovis Police Department and as a dairy truck dispatcher, among other jobs.

The News interviewed her on Wednesday to learn more about her story. Here are some questions and answers from that interview.

Q: You are listed as a department secretary for KENW. What does that job include?

A: I am the FM radio secretary. Sometimes I also fill in when someone else is absent, and I do transcriptions for "Report from Santa Fe" in real time to be shown on the screen, as well as for other shows. I do that verbatim, exactly what they say, not what I think they might be saying. I work in many areas behind the scenes.

Q: What do you like best about this job?

A: Every day is different. We sometimes have to fix and readjust things, and we can't have our listeners know there is something going on. If there is a problem with a tower, we have to make sure an engineer gets there, and sometimes they have to climb the tower. Sometimes we'll have power outages and we have to make sure our backup generators are working so we keep broadcasting.

Q: You are not originally from eastern New Mexico. Where did you grow up?

A: I grew up in a little town in New Jersey. It is a few miles from Bedminster, where the Trump golf course is, and close to Princeton and Trenton.

Q: You worked there before coming to New Mexico, yes?

A: I worked for the Department of Gross Anatomy at Rutgers University, at New Brunswick. I took transcription and got to know the names of every part of the body. It's helpful when you are trying to find the source of an illness. When I take transcription now, it helps to know the medical terms. Now, between what I know and Google, I can get the names of tendons and ligaments. I surprise people with m medical knowledge.

Q: Where else have you lived?

A: With my husband in the Air Force, we lived in Tucson, Arizona, in Canada, and Germany, as well as in other parts of the U.S. We probably spent more time outside the U.S. than in.

Q: What do you do in your spare time?

A: I spend time working in my yard and taking care of two cats and two ferrets. The ferrets are a legacy from my husband. My pets are my companions. I also make soap, starting with rendered lard, tallow or coconut oil, depending on how the soap will be used. I also continue to operate my husband's ham radio set. I mostly use it to relay information to family members in emergency situations.