Bill Worley as Walt Disney
William S. Worley is an Adjunct Professor of History at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and an experienced Chautauquan. His historical interests include Missouri and Kansas City history along with that of the various characters he performs. Currently, he regularly takes on the persona of Kansas City political boss, Tom Pendergast; President Harry S Truman; basketball inventor, James Naismith; Jewish compatriot of John Brown in Bleeding Kansas, August Bondi; and, of course, Walt Disney.
Worley is a “public historian,” in that he attempts to get historical topics out into communities where people can enjoy them, react to them, and even take issue with them. He believes that history is not something to be put on shelf, but to be lived and discussed.
Married, with three grown sons and two grandchildren, Worley presents programs in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma. He has been a scholar-performer in Chautauquas in each of those states as well as Colorado, New Hampshire, Illinois and the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific.