With a big white mustache, a gray suit jacket and a hospitable spirit, Bill Powell sat in his office eager for his day of work ahead.
Bill Powell has been a part of the Levelland community for 51 years now, working for South Plains Community Action Association as the Executive Director, doing extraordinary work.
Powell grew up in Lubbock and graduated from West Texas back in the day before he was drafted into the army, where he was sent off to Louisiana in October of 1967.
In January of 1968, he was sent to San Antonio and in April of that same year, he was sent to Vietnam.
In Vietnam he stayed there for 13 months where he worked as a medic.
After that he came home and went to Fort Worth and worked for General Dynamics building airplanes for Australia ,and when their building contract was fulfilled, he was laid off, along with 30,000 other workers.
Following that, he worked for AVIS Rental cars, then he decided to go back to school and then in 1971 he decided to get married.
He then graduated from West Texas in 1974, where he immediately started working for South Plains Community Action Association, starting off as a Grant Writer.
“They asked me if I could write and I said yeah, so I had to go home and get some college papers I had written and I got the job,” said Powell. “I really wanted to be comfortable, not to make a lot of money, but to be comfortable at the time in 1974 with my wife.”
During that time Powell had to make at least $700 to be comfortable and when he told them that, they offered him $800, which he gladly accepted.
Powell then started working on grants that are still used today. Back in 1975, Spartan Transportation was implemented and Powell had a major role in this grant.
Powell went to Austin during this time for a meeting because the United States Government was sued over medicaid transportation to and from medicaid appointments.
The government lost the case and at that point, Health and Human Services was charged with the responsibility of providing transportation to all medicaid recipients.
“Well they had no idea how to approach that so they started having meetings around the countryside and they passed the responsibilities to the states,” said Powell.
Texas didn’t know how to approach it either, but the state held a meeting in Austin and Powell went. They ended up giving him $1,600 to start Spartan Transportation, and at the time Reese Air Force Base was still open and they gave him a worn out Dodge pick up, which would be the first Spartan to appear in Levelland.
During this time no one had the money to ride public transportation so it took awhile for the program to grow but gradually over time Spartan has grown to 15 counties and all together they have 55 buses. “There’s a matter of just working and doing good. I’m not talking about me, I’m talking about the people who operate,” said Powell. “I know the people and the leadership in this agency have made it.”
He was also around when the grant for WIC was announced, which now has expanded from 11 counties to 105 counties since 1974. WIC stands for Women, Infants and Children, which is a specialty supplement nutrition program where they provide food and nutrition education. They provide milk, cheese, dairy products, cereals, fresh fruits and vegetables for lactating women, children and infants.
As of right now they are serving 55,000 people per month. “Feeding people is very important to me and we have a food box here. We are currently working on opening food boxes for all over the country,” Powell said. “If we can help and bring resources into a community it would make people better. That’s the whole point of this program.”
Powell alluded to the fact that he wouldn’t have made it without the help and loyalty of his community. He has seen multiple entrepreneurs flourish and it all started with great leadership.
To Powell, Levelland as a town has an attitude where they get work done and succeed in whatever they put their mind to.
“If I have had any luck in all of this business it's because of my luck in being able to select good people,”said Powell. “You can not substitute good leadership. If you have it you’re going to grow.” He would never say it, but Bill Powell is a good man and great leader himself, who’s significantly helped the community around him through his work.
He’s an example of using your life to make the world a better place and the Levelland community is lucky to have him.