For my first post, I decided that would share the incomparable biography of my father, William Harley. He was born September 7, 1966, in Lewisburg, PA. From a young age, he was reserved, yet comical, and independent. He even had a nickname through high school (“Bugs”) derived from his love of the cartoon character Bugs Bunny. From high school, he does keep in contact with his two closest friends—Randy and Bill. In fact, our entire family ran into Bill and his family at Disney Springs randomly a few years ago. After graduating high school, William went to Randolph-Macon College on a golf scholarship studying psychology. From then on, he knew he wanted to have a career in the golf industry. He has worked as a Head Professional of golf for almost thirty years. His biggest accomplishment in his career is two-fold: one, when he was name PGA Professional of the Year in 2018 and again when he was voted as the President of the Southwest PGA Chapter in 2019.
Enough of the resume talk. Let’s dive into what makes Bill, Bill! Bill is a very interesting guy. He has faced his fair share of struggles in his life. He lost his sister to cancer in 1997, his mother to cancer in 2018, and our beloved family Labrador Toby to cancer in 2019. But his two savings are his two kids—Alexa (20) and John (18). His biggest hope in his life is that he passes down his sense of humor and ability to look for the goodness in life onto his children. And he has. To him, the biggest cultural moment that he got to witness in his lifetime was when President Ronald Reagan was able to get the wall torn down in Germany. The entire world was watching Reagan and Gorbachev discuss anxiously waiting to see if we may enter into another war or a peaceful coexistence.
William has numerous embarrassing or just plain humorous moments in his life. But according to him, the ultimate comical humiliation occurred right after he turned 21. He and his sister went out and did 21 tequila and tobasco shots. The next day he was playing in a tournament. He already had not been feeling his usual self. Anyway, he stepped up to the tee and took his driver shot but held the finishing pose. He then muttered to his sister that he pooped his pants. He had never seen his sister hysterically laugh like that before. And to this day it is one of his favorite memories of he and his sister despite the unfortunate circumstances.
To close out this small glimpse into who William Harley is, his favorite joke (among thousands you could get from a Mel Brooks film) is “there’s a sale at pennys,” which comes from the “classic,” film, Airplane.
The Harley Hustle 