Before William Seigler came to EPCC, he and his wife Maria took on a mission to help people earn a diploma, so that they may continue their education.
Seigler said he was inspired to write a book called Math Rescue, based on instructor’s notes from his college days, to help people get through their studies.
“It wasn’t until UTEP as a grad student when I took an algebra review course that I went into a room of math paranoids,” said Seigler. “I went from being a math paranoid to a math freak in a matter of weeks. I can only hope I’ve been able to do for other people what [my instructor] did for me. That’s my greatest hope.”
Seigler said many of the people he is helping were on their last strike.
“We’re not in competition with anybody,” he said. “We just pick up the ones the system has dropped.”
Seigler came to work at EPCC teaching remedial
math, and began teaching geology as well. He said he loves teaching and said he has a great deal of fun with it.
“Most of my students are not science majors, and I tell them science is a guy in a white lab coat building monsters,” said Seigler. “I try to carry on the message to education majors so they can share it.”
Assistant leader to a troop of local Boy Scouts, Seigler also does church work, loves organic gardening, bow hunting and doing stuff with his 12-year-old son.
His organic gardening led to his creation of bio-diesel fuels. He just finished a project for the Tigua Indians that focused on creating fuel with peanut oil.
His car, a 1984 Volkswagen Rabbit, is proof that this method works.
“Anything that gets us off oil is good … and anything that helps farmers or the environment is good,” said Seigler.
He feels this could be a way for America to break free from dependence on foreign oil.
“Anything we can do to become more self-sufficient and self-sustaining is good for the country,” he said.
Seigler addresses many of these topics concerning the government and society in his science fiction adventure book, Free’s World.
“My protagonist is a guy who doesn’t fit into the new system of government,” he said, “so he goes to Mars.”
The book describes what a man could do in a different environment, starting over and rebuilding a new system of government.
“The beauty of science fiction is that there’s no limit on what you can write,” he said. “You’re not limited by space or time.”
He compared it to writing a historical novel where details would have to be exact.
Since the book is science fiction, he could take his characters on an adventure only limited by his imagination. Seigler hopes to expand the book into a full-length novel.
“I love to write, but most of us aren’t able to make a living out of it,” he said. Seigler also does photography and writes travel articles for the Post Times and online magazines.
