May 09, 2008 11:04 pm
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By Derek Spellman
dspellman@joplinglobe.com
NEOSHO, Mo. — A longtime Crowder College instructor and central figure in its alternative and renewable energy programs will be leaving the college at the end of June.
Art Boyt, who has been with the college for 29 years, on Friday announced that he is resigning, effective June 30, to start his own Neosho consulting business in renewable and solar energy.
Boyt has served as the director of the Missouri Alternative and Renewable Energy Technology (MARET) Center at Crowder for the past 16 years. He started his career at the college in 1979 as an instructor in the Physical Science and Mathematics Department.
Boyt described his new career as a way to continue some of the work he has been doing at Crowder in different ways.
“I have very high regard for the college,” he said in a Friday phone interview. “Part of my heart will always be at Crowder.”
Highlights from Boyt’s career at Crowder include:
n Establishing the college’s first solar-energy curriculum.
n Devising the college’s Student Database System.
n Playing a key role in the Transamerica Solar Auto Racer project, which in 1984 became the first vehicle to cross the United States using solar power.
n Designing two award-winning, solar-powered homes.
n Guiding the installation of the first wind turbine at the Crowder campus and the plans for the new MARET Center quarters.
In a statement released Friday afternoon, Alan Marble, president of Crowder College, praised Boyt as “one of the most creative and resourceful individuals I have ever known.”
“He (Boyt) has consistently remained true to his core beliefs about the environment and has been a tireless ambassador for the development of alternative energy programs,” Marble said. “We will all miss Art, but we wish him nothing but the best as he enters this new phase of his life’s work.”
Did you know?
In 2001, Art Boyt received the national Outstanding Faculty Award from the Association of Community College Trustees.
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