Forty-five years of service, of teaching it all;
Four decades of a life, finally a time for it to stall.
Through good times and bad, educating with a will;
Thoroughly passionate in all things, these things were Bill.
Starting back in nineteen seventy-three as a lab tech, and moving forward;
From Technician to Instructor to Professor all ahead toward.
From General Biology to Human Health to Microbiology;
Each course in its turn, all things drenched in biology!
Bill Nutting lived a life of joy and of much pain;
He knew happiness briefly, he faced great sorrow and disdain.
When here at the Mount, his life was full and vital and made sense;
His being was the classroom, his soul the lab essence.
Bill accomplished much in nearly seventy years of trying;
Courses written, Academic Affairs handled, Biology Chair work satisfying!
For four decades, students learned of microbes in their life;
Bill guided them in their studies, he helped them with all their strife.
To his younger colleagues, Bill served as mentor and advisor;
He taught about the microscope, he demonstrated staining, a full lab tour!
Bill put passion in all his work; he felt fire for every issue;
All were equally important, from new lab design to toilet tissue!
In later years, life’s struggles would catch up and his health decline;
Bill tried to stay the course, but his strength would only recline.
Best efforts he tried, but illness in the end would prevail;
After much struggle, Bill’s life came to an end and he moved beyond the veil.
Memories of Bill will always remain, his laughter and his smile;
His life’s work resides in his teaching; his lessons stretch many a mile.
Bill’s life was not idyllic; he failed, he won, he tried to keep up his guard;
His final lesson to us all: judging life is easy, living life is hard.
William A. Lefrancois
February 13, 2018
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