Photo by Gary McIntosh,
Computing and Information Services

When an organization employing thousands of employees runs enterprise-wide computer applications that need to be up and running smoothly at all times, it only takes one problem to negatively affect many of those users. Bob Goudreau is one of the folks at UNH who make sure that some of those enterprise-wide computer applications constantly run as smoothly as possible, all of the time.

After graduating from UNH with a B.S. in Resource Economics, Bob took a position in 1975 as a Library Assistant in the Dimond Library. In 1978, he accepted a Data Analyst position in Computer Services and began climbing "various levels" of the IT ladder in CIS in 1979. He is now an Information Technologist IV in the Enterprise Computing Group (ECG) in CIS.

As a member of the HR IT Team, Bob was responsible for a variety of functions involved in the conversion and programming portions in the Banner HR implementation. Learning new technologies, participating in countless meetings with users, and adapting to new organizational structures culminated in the final conversion of the legacy data to Banner at the end of June 2003. Susan Sullivan, Bob's supervisor in ECG, says of Bob during this stressful period "Bob always maintained an upbeat attitude, and was always willing to take on any challenge. He was the one we all knew would try to think of every possible problem or variation and figure out how to deal with it so that we could provide our HR users with the best service possible and make the transition to Banner as smooth as possible."

As he approaches his 30th year as a UNH employee, Bob states "one of the main reasons for my longevity at UNH has been some of my supervisors who have maintained team spirit and have had a positive impact on me. People like Dick Clukay, Sarah Flause and Susan Sullivan were all my supervisors at one point and each of them were wonderful. They were very humane, good at prioritizing projects, recognizing individual's skill sets and assigning responsibilities to their staff."

When asked what he enjoys most about working at UNH, Bob's response was "working with so many intelligent co-workers. I also love seeing the students and the life they bring to the community. I enjoy taking walks around campus and seeing the enthusiasm they bring." Many of these walks are with his wife, Candice, who works at the UNH Computer Store. Bob and Candice are residents of Rochester, NH and have two daughters (one is a student at Keene State College and the younger is a student at the New Hampshire Community Technical College in Stratham, NH.

When not working to improve the University community, Bob can often be found behind a telescope practicing his love of Astronomy (he even built his own telescope "for fun" while in high school), studying different nebulae and star clusters. "I like to see us in the big picture," he states. "We're just a spec. We're only a very small part of the cosmos." Another of Bob's hobbies is creating art. He works in a medium called scratchboard, a little known art form in which he creates beautiful pieces. He has his own website (www.bobgoudreau.com) that shows some of those pieces. Anyone who would like to see some of Bob's actual art pieces can visit him at his booth at The Evergreen Fair, December 2nd and 3rd, in the Granite State Room at the MUB.

Some examples of Bob's Scratchbord art: