Anna’s Mom Totally Went To School With “Bob The Builder”

Bill Duffy, the voice of Bob the Builder, recently visited the East Grand School in Danforth, Maine on Wednesday. But did you know he went to school with my mom?

The Bangor Daily News reported that Sam Hiscoe, a teacher at the school, was looking for a way to get his kids interested in literacy, so he had the voice actor come in and read to the students. It helps that Bill is also Sam's Uncle.

As a student of Theater at the University of Southern Maine, I had heard of Bill Duffy (known professionally as William Dufris), but didn't realize my mother had attended school with him from Elementary through High School in my hometown of Houlton!

Duffy, best known for voicing Bob on the popular children's show Bob the Builder,  is also an award winning audio book producer and narrator. He recently directed the audio book Locke and Key written by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez.  (And yes; That would be the pseudonym for Joseph Hillstrom King, the son of Stephen and Tabitha King!)

Interestingly enough I had many friends who voiced various roles in Locke and Key and I have worked with the producer of the audio book as well, so I was super excited to learn Duffy had been the director behind the project.

I asked my mom what she remembered of Duffy from school and this is what she had to say:

After high school he worked for one of the border liquor stores, and to generate business be would stand at the end of the driveway and wave and yell people into the store and they'd go right in. He was a go-getter back then. Very industrious and confident. A funny fella for sure!

~Joan McAfee

As someone who is passionate about the arts, I love highlighting the amazing local talent we have! How wonderful of Duffy to make the time to get these student excited about stories, and how lucky we are to benefit from the many storytellers in all their various formats, right here in our beautiful home state of Maine.