Feb 5, 2016 3 min read

For Bill Strickland to tell his story, he needs a book.

Actually, he’s written it: “Make the Impossible Possible,” co-authored by Vince Rause.

“Buy the book,” he told the audience in the Upper St. Clair High School auditorium. “It’s big type, and it’s real short.”

That self-effacing comment generated a round of laughter and applause, a constant theme throughout his talk Tuesday as part of the Town Hall South lecture series.

But while he is an entertaining speaker, the founder of the North Side’s Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild brings a serious message:

“Environment drives behavior,” he said. “If you treat children like world-class citizens, they tend to behave that way.”

As an example, Strickland cited Bidwell Training Center, the school he has run since 1972. Located in his lifelong neighborhood of Manchester, which has one of Pittsburgh’s highest crime rates, Bidwell lacks the likes of metal detectors, security cameras, on-site security personnel or other measures that have become standard for inner-city education.

Instead of making students feel like they’re in jail, Strickland said, the Bidwell building is designed to present a friendly, inviting atmosphere bathed in natural light.

“The sun is for everybody on the planet, not just for rich kids,” he explained.

His own background could have been typical of others who were subjected to what occurred in his poor neighborhood in the 1960s.

“We called them what they were,” Strickland said. “They were riots. There were guys getting shot.”

Meanwhile, one of his Oliver High School teachers got him interested in pottery, and in 1968, as a University of Pittsburgh student, he opened the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild as an after-school program for youngsters to pursue that form of expression.

Four years later, in his mid-20s, he took over leadership of Bidwell Training Center, where he promptly received a visit from “a white man with a gold badge, looking for the new director. This was my first day.”

The visitor was from the IRS, with this message: “Your center owes us $300,000.”

“That’s something they neglected to mention during my job interview,” Strickland joked.

Then he told about how he raised the money to save the school, which generated another round of applause.

Today, the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild and Bidwell Training Center, which share space in a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired building on Metropolitan Street, continue to offer free programs for people throughout the region who want to continue their education in a wide variety of fields.

Through the National Center for Arts and Technology, a division of his nonprofit Manchester Bidwell Corp., Strickland is sharing his educational model across the country and internationally.

He spoke about the recently opened Akko Center for Arts and Technology in northern Israel, where members of the Jewish and Arab communities are studying together without incident.

Showing the audience a projected image of himself with Shimon Peres, Strickland shared what he was told by the former Israeli president: “I think you’re on the way to solving the problem in the Middle East.”

Talk about potential material for another book.