By Brent Hoffman, Class of 2005
“I love my city, and I love sharing it,” Bill said. “Doing presentations was a part of my profession that I enjoyed, and being a docent gives me a platform for doing more. Years ago, a friend walked me through the Historic Skyscrapers tour he’d recently taken, and I knew I’d enjoy doing more of that. Since becoming a docent 23 years ago, I’ve gotten increasingly into storytelling and group engagement. For example, the “L” tour is largely stories, including the life and goings-on of Charles Tyson Yerkes, the origin of the CTA, and the history of the term ‘The Loop.’ And during my Historic Treasures tour, I talk about Montgomery Ward’s 20-year crusade to keep the lakefront ‘open, clear and free’.”
As well as Historic Treasures of Chicago’s Golden Age and Elevated Architecture, Bill leads the Chicago’s First Skyscrapers, Must-See Chicago, and Millennium Park tours. His favorite? “Whichever one I’m doing when I’m asked,” he insisted. Bill helped develop the Stanley Tigerman tribute tour and was a docent for the Helmut Jahn tribute tour. He’s also a CAC exhibit host.
Holocaust Museum
“I enjoy helping people learn about the Holocaust and human rights,” Bill continued. Since 2016, he’s been a docent at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie. Explained Bill, “The exhibits include more than 20,000 items that formerly belonged to Holocaust victims and survivors, many of whom moved to the Midwest. In the Survivor Stories Experience theater, the first of its kind, guests can interact with life-like 3-D projections of survivors who appear to sit on a stage as they answer audience questions. To make this possible, each survivor had been recorded by multiple cameras as they answered about 1,000 reference questions.”
Bill, who lives with his wife Janice in Morton Grove, is also a deputy voter registrar. During the November 5th election, he was an election judge, “another way I can help people take part in our Morton Grove community. And I’ve learned of several built-in checks before, during and after the day’s voting that reinforce my confidence in the system’s security and accuracy.”
Engineer, Travel Writer & Jeopardy Buff
“Way long ago, I majored in electrical engineering at Michigan State, then got a master’s degree in the same subject at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. From then on,” he continued, “I worked as a software developer, systems engineer, and trainer on various Teletype, screen, and phone network technologies. Around the time of my first retirement in 2000, I started docent training at CAF. Upon my last retirement, in 2015, I started my training at the Holocaust Museum and, around 2019, I added volunteering as an exhibit host at CAC.”
Bill and his wife are avid travelers, usually taking two international trips every year. “Within the last couple years, I’ve seen some terrific architecture in Milan and Reykjavik and wrote about both for Docent News,” he said. “Next year, we’re going to Spain and Portugal and to the capitals of central Europe. I hope to write them up, too.
“For hobbies, I read a lot, do many paper-and-pen puzzles, and watch an unhealthy amount of TV. My top remaining life goal is to appear on the quiz show Jeopardy. I’ve been watching it for decades – the last couple with my wife – who often asks, ‘how do you know that?’ and, occasionally, ‘why do you know that?’”
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Lovely profile of a great guy. Thanks Brent – and Bill! And yes, I sympathize with the “why do you know that?” I get that a lot.
Thanks to Brent for, as usual, profiling one of our own who exemplifies what it means to be a docent. Bill is a great docent and exhibition host and it was fun to learn a bit more about him. Michigan State???? Not in my house! but U of I is fine and your background in technology is something new to know about you, Bill. thanks to both of you.