Most of us live lives of reasonable duality. Juggling our artistic creativity with our professional roles often creates a challenging juxtaposition.Not so, for MCC-Blue River’s history instructor, Bill Worley. He has discovered a way to fuse his professional identity with his creative proclivity…and in the end, everyone has a great time!
A simple Google of Worley will deliver a multitude of local and national projects (spanning several years) in which he has contributed. In spite of his stellar accomplishments, Worley is particularly proud of his affiliation with the Blue River faculty. “It’s important to understand the significance of our college in this area. The faculty is outstanding and many of them have acquired Ph.D’s. We are very fortunate.”
Recently, Worley was featured on Kansas City Public Television’s (KCPT) “Rails to Roads” as a subject-matter-expert on the history of Overland Park’s interurban railway systems.
In 2009, Worley was also on KCPT’s “Meet the Past with Crosby Kemper." The show’s concept poses local historians as prominent historical characters for educational and entertainment purposes. Filmed at the Central branch of the Kansas City Public Library, “Meet the Past” requires actors (who are actually historians) to delve deeply into the lives, psyches and motivations of popular historical figures. Worley has been featured twice on the show as Walt Disney and political kingpin, Tom Pendergast.
In the classroom, Worley is not constrained by traditional teaching methods. It’s not uncommon for him to appear in class dressed as a historical figure. He enjoys making education less intimidating for students in classroom settings. Further, Worley sees teaching as a mutually beneficial, synergetic process. His personal philosophy is “teaching is learning."
An online bio of Worley states in addition to Disney and Pendergast, he often portrays other prominent figures such as Bob Hope, President Harry S. Truman; basketball inventor, James Naismith; Jewish compatriot of John Brown in Bleeding Kansas, August Bondi and former U.S. Secretary of State, William Seward. “The closest I’ll get to portraying [president] Lincoln, is Seward,” he says with a smile.
Exhibiting no signs of slowing down, Worley’s face lights up as he discusses the Chautauquas Circuit, a traveling performing arts show of which he is an active member. The circuit is an adaptation from the 19th and 20th century traveling entertainment tours. For those unfamiliar with the circuit’s rich history, Worley simply says, “Think of it as Vaudeville for rural America."
If you’re able to catch the very busy Worley, his office is housed in the Campus Center’s second floor. You may also learn more about him on his MCC web page here.
View pictures of Dr. Worley as:
- Tom Pendergast - click here
- The Kansas City Public Library allows you to view Worley's performance via video click here.
- William Seward - click here (scroll to find his profile)
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