Let’s take a trip down Memory Lane, shall we? The year is roughly 1998 and you still have a solid hour and a half before school is out, you return to your classroom hot and sweaty from P.E. class to find that the lights are off, the classroom is cool and what do you spot at the front of the class but the T.V. on one of those roller carts. None of this is adding up because you know you’re supposed to be nabbing a science book and turning to the chapter on natural habitats. Your teacher instructs everyone to have a seat, turns the T.V. on, then you hear it… BILL NYE THE SCIENCE GUY! Bill Nye still has our hearts after all these years, but we don’t really know much about the guy, so let’s change that today.
Bill Nye is obsessed with sundials, thanks in full to his father Ned. During WWII Ned Nye was in a Japanese prisoner of war camp and in an attempt to stay sane, he made sundials. Ned passed this love of time telling to his tiny genius son Bill and the rest is history. In fact, it was Bill who convinced NASA to include “Marsdials” in both the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers. (Bill! Bill! Bill!)
Bill Nye’s first big kid job was at Boeing in Seattle, and while he achieved some impressive things there, we’re here to talk about the training films he starred in. Why? Because those training films eventually led to him pursuing stand-up comedy. We’re just happy he was able to live out both dreams and be the funny science man on PBS because how else were we to learn?
Among so many things, Bill Nye can also include “inventor” in his repertoire. He holds the patent for a new and improved ballet slipper, as well as an educational magnifying glass created by filling a clear plastic bag with water.
Bill Nye actually had the coolest parents probably ever. We hardly scratched the surface when it comes to his Dad but as a survivor of a Japanese POW camp, he’s clearly not one to be trifled with. Let’s talk about Mrs. Jacqueline Jenkins-Nye. Not only was she a member of the Navy, but she was called upon to help crack the Enigma Code. How did she handle that? It’s said that her work shortened WWII by years. Nye once said of his mom that she was “a big believer of women doing everything.”
Bill drafted some “rules” before he started filming the show we all know and love, and what he drafted will warm your heart:
“Objective: Change the world.
Produce a TV show that gets kids and adults excited about science, so that the United States will again be the world leader in technology, innovation, and sound management of the environment.
For example, when our audience is of age, we’d like them to produce the best transportation systems in the world, e.g. cars, electric cars, trains, and aircraft.”
We can’t let Bill down, you guys.