His dark framed glasses

Paired with his upside down smile

Gives off the persona of a simplistic man,

Who works from 9 to 5 and enjoys spending his time fishing.

This plain adjective lovingly assigned to him,

Masks the rather contradictory complex personality of him

To those simply passing by,

they see a typical middle- aged teacher

Carrying himself through the halls with a professional demeanor

Little do they know,

This is the same man who is the first to crack a joke in the classroom

The same man

that enjoys analyzing every British murder mystery story he can find,

Begins his day with watching Arthur reruns on PBS

The same man

Who puts on a tie every morning to go to work,

Comes home to relax in his Batman pajamas

With his little Jack Russel terrier

His faithful companion,

His shadow

The same man

That can tell you anything you could ever need to know about the Civil War

And more,

Can quote any line from his favorite character on Bob’s Burgers

Now 49 years passed,

A beloved teacher and director to many,

I am fortunate to not have only had him as a teacher in school,

But also my life teacher.

He taught me to be determined,

But also patient.

To be opinionated,

But also open-minded.

And one of his best character traits,

To be sophisticated,

But also a child.

To my greatest teacher

And wonderful father,

Happy Birthday,

Simple Bill.