Barry Smith

Editor’s note: Where are they now is a weekly feature updating the lives of Eastern New Mexico University graduates.

Barry Smith has kept busy in retirement.

A resident of Eugene, Oregon, who earned his undergraduate degree at Eastern New Mexico University in 1967, Smith helps maintain the city’s police vehicle fleet as a volunteer and also plays trumpet in several musical groups, including one at the local community college. He also keeps busy with woodworking and taking care of a family farm.

He said his musical interest had been dormant for 40 years.

Smith spent most of his professional career in the psychology field — a major he picked “because you didn’t need math to major in it.” He also worked in energy and water conservation involving low-income families.

Flashback
Most memorable ENMU professor? “There were so many, but Dr. Baldwin (psychology) has to be the most memorable. His warm, easy going, yet serious style, remain fresh in my mind as if we had class yesterday. He rode his bicycle (an old clunker) to class every day long before that became popular.”

What song makes you think of your time at ENMU every time you hear it? “Any of those rock and folk songs, which were popular in the early and mid-’60s. In the country vein, that one called ‘They’re Going to Put Me in the Movies.’”

What was the biggest national issue while you were attending ENMU and what was your stance on it? Has your stance changed?
“Assassination of JFK and how that possibly could have happened in the U.S.
“Unfortunately there are so many drive-bys, gang banger, school, radical Muslim, racial, and other senseless murders of both famous and ordinary people that the violence in our country is hard to fathom.”

What is a skill you developed at ENMU that still serves you today? “There are so many … appreciation of literature, reading, and knowing how to think critically.”

Care to share a story about your time at ENMU? “One that popped into my mind just now concerned ‘illegal cohabitation.’
“During my time at Eastern there was a guy and girl who had been living together for some time. Apparently our campus cop had built up quite a case. When it came to light it was big news in the campus paper, and I believe, the local paper there, too. I remember huge headlines, as the case of the century had been cracked!”

Bio
Hometown: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Current residence: Eugene, Oregon
Family: Married more than 20 years with two grown children from a previous marriage.
Year(s) graduated from ENMU/degree(s): 1967, bachelor’s degree in psychology; 1968, master’s in psychology.
Hobbies: Trumpet playing, woodworking, “house farming,” backyard nature, and former ship in a bottle maker

— Compiled by Rick White, correspondent