Photography skills earned Darrel Conger a job in the Medical Illustration Department of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Dallas (today UT Southwestern) in 1987.

He recalls that his job got off to an odd start. Picture this: It’s Mr. Conger’s first day on his new job, and he’s walking down the cafeteria hallway when suddenly a naked man nearly plows into him, then streaks past. The man, not a streaker but rather a Parkland Memorial Hospital patient who has run away from the hospital, is followed closely by police officers in all-out pursuit.

Thirty-five years and 5,000-plus patients later, Mr. Conger has yet to have an experience that tops that first-day exposure to work life.

His work in medical photography turned out to be short-lived. After about 18 months on the job, Mr. Conger moved from Medical Illustration to Ophthalmology, and he has worked with patients ever since.

In Ophthalmology, Mr. Conger learned how to perform 25 types of imaging tests, including fundus photography, which takes sharp images of the interior surface of the eye; fluorescein angiography, which uses a contrast dye to highlight blood vessels in the retina; and ultrasound for patients who are going to have implants.

About 15 years ago, he moved to the Department of Neurology, where he continues to do various types of eye testing, especially optical coherence tomography, which is like a high-resolution ultrasound and can measure individual layers of the retina. Most of the patients he works with in Neurology have demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis. Myelin is an insulating fatty layer that surrounds nerves.

Fridays are Mr. Conger’s favorite day of the week because that’s when he works at CONQUER, a specialty clinic at Children’s Medical Center Dallas for youth with demyelinating diseases.

“It’s a really fulfilling thing to do. It’s a whole-team approach with teachers, psychologists, social workers, and physical therapists, and we have people who come from all over the country for the clinic,” he says.

Mr. Conger lives in Plano, Texas, with his wife, Amy, who is a Research Coordinator at UT Southwestern. He enjoys scuba diving and has done more than 500 dives in places like Mexico and the Caribbean. His bucket list includes scuba diving in Fiji.

Why has he stayed at his job for so long? “UT Southwestern feels like home. Cooperation and the quest for knowledge are part of the culture. Finding that combination somewhere else would be difficult,” Mr. Conger says.

Besides, he says, he really likes his parking spot.