Anybody remember that tutor, Mr Bill, from the early 90's? Cocky as hell but he made a mint off of freshman Chemistry tutoring. Whatever happened to him and A Plus Tutoring?


What was his story? When I started at A&M he was already off campus, over by Fatburger.

its now Ali, the new Mr.Bill

they had chemistry in the early 90s?

Mr. Bill was still around in '99, the guy was more legend than reality. Every time I heard a story told about him, he got 2 new degrees, none of which he had.

Regardless, one time I had Donald Darensbourg(sp?) and Mr. Bill comes in and hits his staff against the ground during the middle of the lecture and shouts "teach these children" and Dr. Darensbourg yelled back at him.

That was a horrible class, I always hated rolling the random research prof that teaches a class, but while the class average was like a 40, I had a legit A, so my realistic average was like 120 or so ;D

Oh yeah .. Mr. Bill sold out to some dude Ali ..

[This message has been edited by Randy03 (edited 4/3/2007 4:13a).]

I just remember he would always say, "aaaand you're DONE" when working a big long problem. Of course he would say it several times during the course of one problem.

He always wore a polo shirt, some kind of real trendy jeans, and some kind of cap. Never saw him without a cap.

Does anybody know his real name and background?

Mr. Bill also always used to say - "Guys, this is a strong base. You do not want to stick your ***** in it."

Great physics tutor also.

i wish digital cameras or camera phones were as prevalent in '99 as they are today. i would love to have a pic of this character. i never had him for chem 107 tutoring, just ali for math 151.

Oh yeah, met my wife at Bill

Legendary. They need to build a statue of the man.

I went to Mr. Bill once to see what it was like but never returned. I had really good SI sessions, and those were free! Being a business major, I have no clue WHY I took chemistry, but Dr. Keeney-Kennicutt was awesome.

[This message has been edited by Photog (edited 4/7/2007 8:01p).]

i worked for bill, and tutoring ag is correct. he did have two degrees. both undergraduate engineering ones. as a dumb young college kid he seemed like a brilliant man... brilliant and crazy.

from what i witnessed he didn't "train ali as his mini me." bill was partners with a prominent college station real estate "mogul" (can't think of a better word). ali ran the coffee shop set up in the shack next to hebert's. anyhow, as bill started slipping away from reality ali started doing some of the classes. the further he went the more he sold off to ali. as the other partner saw this was happening he wanted out (it was becoming not a solid business) so he sold out to ali as well. then it became all ali's. this was back in the 2001 time frame that i was done there.

afterwards bill slipped away into obscurity (dfw area). I never heard directly from him again.

"Guns don't kill people, I kill people."

Edited to remove some personal views.



[This message has been edited by Gator2_01 (edited 5/11/2007 12:34a).]

That guy would sure go on some wild tangents during his tutoring sessions.

Gator,

I am sure you know me. Who are you?

My email address is in my profile.

I did not want to get into all the baggage part of his downfall, but . . .

Anyhow, shoot me an email.

quote:

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they had chemistry in the early 90s?

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Yes, but it was much easier. The only elements in the periodic table were:

De = Dirt
Wa = Water
F = Fire
Ar = Air

I feel like I should have Bill and Arf's names stamped on my Petroleum Engineering degree somewhere. I was taking Phys 218, Chem 107, and Math 152 (Calculus II) all in one semester. I rarely made it to Heldenfels for the calc class, rarely watched the chem telecasts, and rarely understood what that crazy Prof Gagliardi was talking about in Physics. But I spent a lot of hours and money at A+ for Physics and Chemistry and 4.0 for Cal II.

I don't know what the buzz is today about Mr. Bill, but the man was amazing. I'd go in there with very little knowledge of what was coming up on my exam, and leave 2 hours later with a pretty firm grasp on everything I needed to know. I pulled in B's in all those classes, which I was completely satisfied with at the time. I remember that he'd walk around barefoot, with chalk covering his feet up to his ankles and his hands up to his wrists. He explained things so clearly...the man was amazing. I took Ali a few times the next semester for PHYS208 after Bill left, but it wasn't the same. Plus I had the one prof, Saslow, who wouldn't give the common exam.

The rumor going around when I was there was that Bill got into trouble for running a scam on the students. He was trying to hook kids up with some TxDOT jobs over the summer in 2000, and the rumor was that he pocketed the administrative fees that the students had given him. I have no idea if that was true...sounds like it probably was not.

i would leave there covered in chalk dust and smoke. Great guy who helped me out a lot! I do remember the painting days.

matt-

the wife just found our old copy of the battalion where he tried to sell the painting.

"Christianity" by Michelangelo Medici

My favorite parts were the personal touches he added in white out.

"Guns don't kill people, I kill people."

Anyone else got Mr. Bill stories?

hdaggie has the story the most correct, we use to work together and talked about that story a while back

His students were the most prepared for the common exams back in the day, and the lines to buy tickets on sunday were long as hell IIRC

Remember him saying some BS like he was meeting with the Pope and other folks about expensive paintings.

Found this...at the beginning it sounds like he taught 10 of the students that died at Bonfire.

Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess

Wow, watched video and weird seeing him 30 years later. He got me an A on a physics exam and a B in the course. Miracle worker.

Always remember him having a cold, constantly blowing his nose.

Legend

Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess

To HDAggie - Then I KNOW you taught some of my classes! Thank you SO MUCH for tutoring the engineering students in the early 90's. I honestly don't remember which tutor walked over to me, grabbed my pen, threw it on the floor and said "you'll never make it as an engineering student at A&M if you can't find a pencil!". To this day, I tell my kids the exact same thing when they are doing math. I still do math every day. Thank you!!! '93

I took him a couple of times for Chem 101. Got an A that class.

Yes, and they had MR. Bill in 1987, and many kids flunked chemistry 101 at the time. I thought it was easy, even thought about majoring in it.

Went to a few Mr. Bill seminars, he was pretty good. and it was packed at that time.

The only thing I still remember from '90 freshmen chem tutoring is Bill explaining that you could put copper pennies in trash can punch which would cause some slight chemical change so you wouldn't get sick and puke. In hindsight, that could likely kill since puking probably helps avoid alcohol poisoning.

When I saw that scene in Breaking Bad where they dissolve that dude in acid, all I could think was that I had first learned you could do that from Mr. Bill as he discussed doing just that in a bathtub during one of his Chem sessions…good times.

summed up my years there

'92-'96

Represent830 said:

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Popularized by the song "Fightin' Texas Aggie" by Dub Miller...

"He's got an 8 o'clock at Heldenfels,
his prof speaks Japanese,
he went broke on beer and Mr. Bill,
now he lives on bread and cheese."

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summed up my years there

'92-'96

A's in Chemistry due to Mr. Bill

Never went to class just paid my $27 a week for 2 weeks for each test