Big change in Bill's life: "I had a goal from when I was six: I wanted to become a priest. I served for thirty years in that capacity in the diocese in Lansing, Michigan. After my breakdown I ended up married to Kathy...happily so."
How Bill felt about working as a janitor for 14 years even though he had a good education: Bill says he didn't mind at all. He feels that being a janitor puts you right in the middle of the school system, he said he learned how the system really works and that it's a very complicated system. He said that everyone still called him "Father" so it wasn't like they looked down on him. He was treated with much respect. Bill also said that he got real professional at cleaning toilets. "Now I employ my skills at home. I am the head support staff for my wife who is extra busy teaching 3rd graders in Howell."
Hardest times in Bill's life: "My father and mother both died before I was ordained. Another hard time was when I had a breakdown: I was locked up at Mercywood Hospital that was kinda' rough when they lock the door behind you, although, I ended up being the chaplain at Mercywood. When you are locked up in a hospital that is a hundred years old with people in all states of dementia--it was tough, that was Pontiac State Hospital."
How Bill coped with the stress of being locked up: "I said my prayers. When you go into the chapel and pray that you will stay sane...that's pretty serious business. Also, I always walked when I was frustrated. I walked in the woods. I have a poem about that."
How these hard times helped: "They helped me to understand and they gave me the insight to help other people. That's why I started volunteering at Phoenix High School and Livingston Literacy Council and things like that."
Views on getting older: "I think that is what life is all about. Everything about life is a matter of maturity. Like a tree grows and matures and an animal grows and matures. Your experiences help you grow and become unselfish. The most selfish creature in the world is a little baby. By the time you are a teenager you should be making that transition into an adult."
What he'd like to leave the world when he goes: "I'd like to leave the world my poems. I'd like to leave a lot of folks with knowledge of how to fish: To me fishing solves the unsolvable. if you have a problem, take it fishin'. It will work out. I love nature. I love people. I love myself ('cause you can't love anyone else if you don't love yourself')."
Belief in next life: "My belief in the next life affects my life now in everything I do. It motivates me. The highest motivation there is, is believing that there is more to life than this. If someone doesn't believe in something spiritual they might as well end it. That's sad, I shouldn't say that...if people are in a state like that they got [sic] to talk to somebody. Talk to somebody who does believe in something. I remember when I used to help the electrician at Brighton Schools, Gary, and when he'd be working on something that was broken I would say, 'All material things by their very nature break down into their component parts. Man's soul has no parts. It, therefore, goes on forever.' So, Gary would be repairing something and he'd ask, 'What was that you say about things breaking down, again?' When he'd see a beautiful girl and make a comment or something I'd say, 'Yep, there's proof for the existence if God. Only God can make such beautiful creatures.'
Bill's life Philosophy: "'Be not the first by whom the new is tried nor yet the last to lay the old aside.' That's one of my favorite ones. Another one is: 'The devil did grin cause his favorite sin is pride that apes humility.' This is about people who are phony pretending they're one way or the other when they are not. When we were getting ready to be ordained, I heard a sermon: 'Always try to do the best you can do under the circumstances.' Another sermon that influenced me was when the preacher said: 'Jesus has no hands but yours, no feet but yours, no lips but yours, no voice but yours to go out and do what needs to be done.'"
Question he would ask of a supremely intelligent being: He would ask about abortion: because people have very strong feelings either for or against. Also homosexuality: people feel very strongly about that. He feels there has to be a right answer. He's not asking if people want to be gay, he's asking if they were born that way. Would that be one's choice if they really had a choice?
Views on society in the next millennium: "I think it is going to be better and better, I really do."
