Our people: World traveler's perfect day: 'Out with my camera'

Bob Dart is Clovis Community College's vice president of Internet Technology & Operations. He has traveled to many places around the globe, he knows much about the innards of the planet and he knows the taste of sheep eyeballs (they're "grisly and not much flavor at all").

How does he know these things? He told The News when we talked to him at his CCC office Thursday.

Q: Where are you originally from?

A: My sisters and I were born in Grand Harbor, Mich., on the shores of Lake Michigan. Dad taught at the high school there.

Q: How did you come to be in eastern New Mexico?

A: We moved to Portales in 1967. Dad took the job as swimming coach at Eastern New Mexico University.

Q: Tell us about your family.

A: My grandfather was an aeronautical engineer. He worked for Ford Motor Company on their tri-motor plane.

He held the patent on the airfoil, the wing, of the B-26 bomber. Dad's family was from New England.

My Mom's family was Michigan Dutch.

My wife's name is Regina. This coming March will mark 28 years that we've been married.

Son Nathan does maintenance on milk trailers. He's a welder. He learned his craft in the CCC welding program.

Daughter Abby is in her third semester at Eastern.

She got her associate's degree here at CCC.

Q: What exactly is your job at CCC?

A: I am vice president of IT & Operations.

I'm responsible for IT, networking, user services, help desk and physical plant.

That includes heating, air conditioning, plumbing, electrical, groundskeeping, and custodial.

Q: Once upon a time your job took you to different places around the globe. Tell us about that.

A: I got a degree in electrical engineering from New Mexico State University in 1979.

My first job was with Gus Manufacturing, an El Paso company that made seismic recording systems for the oil and gas industry.

As a field service engineer I traveled about 300 days a year in the United States and internationally.

I worked for them from 1979 to 1983.

I'm pretty sure my first international trip was to China in 1980.

I started in Beijing then traveled to rural areas.

I loved China back then. It was a real eye-opening experience.

One time we were on our way back to Beijing, we were in a rural area and we stopped for something. Our interpreter left us in our van while he went to buy something.

Shortly, our van was surrounded by a crowd of local people who wanted to see the foreigners.

I traveled to Japan, Italy, Austria, Canada.

Then I went to work for ARCO in Plano, Texas as an exploration research scientist, part of a team developing better seismic data gathering.

I spent my winters on Alaska's North Slope, Prudhoe Bay, and my summers in the Algerian Sahara Desert of North Africa.

Q: What do you think about this planet?

A: I love our planet.

It's a beautiful place.

When I traveled I didn't go to tourist places, I spent a lot of time where the everyday people lived and worked.

We've done a lot of bad stuff to the Earth.

We need to be transitioning to more sustainable energy sources.

But we can't just throw a switch and make it happen.

I think there's a transitional path forward.

Q: What is the most unusual thing you've ever eaten in your travels?

A: My wife and daughter will kill me for telling this story.

I was in Algeria, in the middle of the Sahara Desert, and in a country like Algeria where industry is nationalized you work with the local company and crew.

When the project was over they planned a big "Meshwi" to celebrate.

Meshwi is Arabic for sheep roast.

The morning of the last day a truck came to the site with six sheep.

That was dinner for the celebration that night.

I was one of the guests of honor at a Meshwi. The guest of honor is served the sheep's eyes, a symbol of vision.

So there at the dinner is the Algerian chief standing in front of us with eyeballs on a plate.

It was an experience I would prefer not to repeat.

The eyeballs were grisly, not much flavor at all.

But the roasted sheep was great.

Q: What's the best sandwich?

A: A Green Chile Cheeseburger. Bill's Jumbo Burger here in Clovis has a great one.

And if you saw the movie "Hell or High Water" filmed in Clovis, I was an extra in the Bill's Jumbo Burger scene.

I was also a photo extra for Jeff Bridges in that movie.

Q: What is your favorite dish?

A: Chile Verde. Pork, green chile, tomatillo paste.

We were traveling one time near Tularosa and we stopped at a place called The Alomar.

I ordered a plate of Chile Verde.

I had a bite.

My wife laughed because my eyeballs rolled back in my head, it was so good.

Q: Where is your favorite vacation spot?

A: The mountains, somewhere away from people, with my camera.

My favorite drive in the state is State Route 3 between I-40 and I-25.

It passes through Villanueva. Beautiful.

Q: What is your perfect day?

A: Out with my camera taking photographs.

Q: Bob Dart's fantasy dinner: Who's there and what's being served?

A: Edward Steichen, a 19th to 20th century painter and photographer. An early visionary of photography as a fine art form.

Alfred Stieglitz, another driving force in getting photography accepted as a fine art form.

He was married to Georgia O'Keeffe. I wouldn't mind having her at that dinner either.

Edward Weston, active around that same time. He was the first photographer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship.

There would be wine, cheese and fruit.

Light stuff to snack on while we talked about photography.

Q: You have a favorite saying or quote?

A: I've taught photography at CCC and ENMU in the past.

Film photography, not digital photography.

I'd have the students do essays on photographers from a list I gave them.

One on the list is Diane Arbus.

She once said, "I really believe there are things that people wouldn't see if I didn't photograph them."