Profile-Bill Schultz, runner and educator

 Role played in borough: Was seen as a role model for children when he completed a 3,000 mile journey on foot across America in 1990.

Specialized in: Bill was and is still a great advocate for encouraging children to follow their dreams. He particularly specialized in science and geography which he utilized on his journey to teach his students about the science and geography involved in the journey.

History: When Bill retired in June 2011, he had spent over twenty years at Harris Elementary School teaching fifth grade. Being a avid runner, Bill competed with his brother in many competitions in the 1980s. His most memorable experience before his journey across America was a six day competition where he beat the American record for endurance.  While planning his journey, he decided that instead of doing the usual east to west route which he described to his students would be harder to do, he would go west to east. He had two reasons for doing this: 1) the wind would be at his back....by charting weather patterns he deduced that this would be so. 2) he would have the incentive to go home. He also planned with the help of one of the other teachers, affectionately known by teachers and students alike as Miss Pauline to send postcards of his various stops along the way. He started his journey on February 11th and spent 100 nights on the road stopping at various destinations to bed down for the night and/or speak at the local elementary schools. The students at Harris Elementary tracked his progress via a map set up in one of the classrooms and the Wednesday morning phone calls Bill would make to report where he was. It became a sort of game...guessing where Mr. Schultz was...until the next call came in. For some of the students he connected with during his journey, memories still surface as postcards were exchanged and many remained pen pals with other students from different parts of the country. The borough honored him on June 8th 1990 with the key to the borough at what the borough renamed as "Bill Schultz Day."


 Postscript-Where is he now?: Bill is currently planning another journey with his brother biking across country. He still runs marathons regularly, and has once run the Boston Marathon.










Photograph by Anne Neborak-1991