Robert Blake, programmer analyst in the Computing and Information Technology Center, is a cowboy hat wearing, motorcycle driving, poetry writing, classical music fan. He is one of eight listeners featured on the web site of Dallas’ WRR Classical 101.1.

What is your title and department?
I am one of several PeopleSoft administrators who make up the application infrastructure management team of CITC. My principle responsibility is learning solutions (campus solutions and Human Resources.)

How long have you worked at UNT?
I have worked with UNT for 14 and half years. I worked for the University of North Health Science Center at Fort Worth as data, database and banner administrator for nine years. I have been with UNT for about five and a half years. I originally came up as one of the UNTHSC representatives helping with the birth of EIS and participating in the initial installation.

How do you define success?
I have passed many of what I think of as life’s milestones: a high school diploma; a university degree (the first in my family to do so) followed by a 15-year career working in my chosen field of study; the loss of that career and starting a second - in a completely different field, no less; becoming a teacher and mentor; becoming a husband, father and grandfather; witnessing the decline and passing of a loved one.

Where did you grow up?
Okay, I admit it. I was born in a small town in mid-state New York at the opposite end of Seneca Lake from Watkins Glen. However, the majority our family all moved to Fort Worth in 1960. So while I may have been born a Yankee, I was raised a Texan with all that that implies, including the fierce pride and that everything’s-bigger-in-Texas attitude.

What do you like to do outside of work?
Following my father, grandfather and great-uncles, I joined the fraternal organization of Freemasonry and I am a member of two Blue Lodges and two of the appending bodies - the Scottish Rite and the Shrine. Much of my free time is spent in the Blue Lodge as a teacher and mentor, although I do participate in the activities of the other two organizations in support of our various Masonic charities.

What leisure time I have left over I spend in a variety of pursuits. I love being outdoors, so I spend a good deal of time on a 2002 Honda VTX1800C motorcycle wandering the two-lane blacktops through the open prairie, forests, canyons and mountains of north Texas and southern Oklahoma. I am an avid bird-watcher. I specialize in birds-of-prey. I am a bookaholic, usually reading two or three books at the same time. I write, mostly poetry, but there is the occasional short story and I pick at a novel in-progress. Finally, I draw; pencil only.

When did you become interested in classical music?
It started in 1960 when we arrived in Texas. After moving into our new home, my father bought a big console stereo for the living room, this was in a time when it was a major piece of furniture all by itself. The radio was almost always tuned to the local classical music station and the majority of the records at home were classical. I was raised on this stuff and it is permanently stuck in my being.

Do you play any instruments?
I play the acoustic guitar. I carried it everywhere, even to the Sul Ross University research station in Big Bend National Park  ... where three of us used to spend our evenings jamming on the back patio overlooking the Rio Grande across from Boquillas, Mexico. I also have a couple of penny-whistles. I eventually want to learn to play them, which should prove quite challenging as I have never been able to read music.

How were you selected to be featured on the WRR web site?
WRR Classical 101.1 is the local classical station that, most days, is playing in my office at work, at home and in my truck. WRR asked local listeners to e-mail their favorite stories. I told them about growing up with WRR and how it helped nurture my love for classical music, about how I have kept track of every March of the Day since it started back in 2001.  WRR was putting together their new website and promotional material for the station and after reading through the submissions, they contacted eight of the respondents. I was one. Our pictures and stories now appear on the website and in promo material. So I guess that’s my 15 minutes of fame. I’m the only one in the cowboy hat.

Do you have a favorite classical musician or composer?
The top of the list, number one all time favorite, is Ralph Vaughn Williams: The lark ascending. I’d give almost anything to hear that piece done live. Of course, anything by Vaughn Williams is pure heaven.

(Photo courtesy of WRR Classical 101.1. Interview by Elizabeth Knighten, student assistant, University Relations, Marketing and Communications)