After almost three decades, longtime instructor and alternative energy pioneer Art Boyt is bidding farewell to Crowder College to work in the private sector.

He leaves behind a legacy of being the driving force behind the college’s Missouri Alternative and Renewable Energy Technology (MARET) Center, which he has directed for the past 16 years. Boyt originally started at Crowder in 1979 as a physical science and math instructor.

Boyt said he turned in his resignation last week, though his contract technically lasts through June.

He acknowledged the start-up of his own renewable energy consulting company, but on Saturday told the Daily News he didn’t want to use the report of his resignation as an advertising outlet. Consequently, Boyt was hesitant to disclose the name of his business.

He did say, however, that he already has his first big contract lined up, a trip to the South Pacific, where he will advise the separate island governments of Guam and Palau in the development of wind and solar energy.

“My situation is, I looked at what I was doing at Crowder and what I saw going on in the private sector, and decided this was the right time to make a change after 29 years,” Boyt said. 

In a prepared statement, Crowder president Dr. Alan Marble praised Boyt for his creativity, dedication and resourcefulness said the college would “always consider him to be an integral part of the Crowder family.”

Boyt established Crowder’s first solar curriculum, and he also developed the college’s student database system. In 2001, Boyt received the national “Outstanding Faculty Award” from the Association of Community College Trustees.

He was also the driving force behind the design and construction of the college’s two solar houses and was responsible for bringing in Crowder’s wind turbine.

But what Boyt is probably best known for is his heavy personal involvement in the Transamerica Solar Auto Racer project, which in 1984 became the first vehicle to cross the U.S. using solar power. Though others were also behind the project that brought Crowder international fame, it’s Boyt’s name that most people associate with the college’s first solar car.

He said the solar car and the solar houses were, for him personally, the two biggest highlights of his career at Crowder.

Boyt also disagreed with the assessment that he won’t bear witness to the fruition of the completed installment of the wind turbine and the future 27,000 square foot MARET Center facility, which is expected to garner Crowder more international attention with its innovative design.

 He said he would be willing to take on an advisory role for both projects.

“I continue to be available to the college and to the community as needed for moving forward with that,” Boyt stated. “It just won’t be as an employee of the college.”

“I haven’t exactly disappeared,” he noted later. “I don’t want to call this a retirement. A resignation indicates I am active in pushing forward renewable (energies), which are vitally important to our community, to the rest of the country, and to the rest of the world. So that is going to continue. And while my location is in a different place now, a part of my heart is always going to stay with Crowder.”