Determined, driven and full of ideas, inventor Bill Halliar has encountered a lifetime of accomplishment and success.
He was born and raised in East Chicago, but spent many years of his life in Whiting. Two years ago, he relocated to Michigan City in 2012. While he was growing up, he had always sought an interest in engineering and music. Both allowed him to be creative, explore and express himself freely.
"I always believed that people should discover what their talents are when they are young and then perfect them and invest them into the community, whatever they are," Halliar said.
He attended Purdue University with a major in engineering, and then studied music composition at Indiana University.
Although both interested him greatly, he ended up as a senior project engineer.
After college, he went on to work in the railroad industry for a total of forty-five years. At the beginning of his career, he worked at Pullman Railroad Company in Hammond nearly eleven years, and then went on to work at TTX Company for thirty years, another railroad company in Chicago.
Music had always been one of his biggest hobbies; he played piano and organ for many churches, one of them being St. John's United Church of Christ in Michigan City. While living Whiting, he accompanied high schoolers in musicals, plays and contests. He hopes to one day do the same again in Michigan City.
Pursuing two of his biggest passions inspired him to start his own contest, Alternate Power Initiative, which was founded in 2010.
This contest allows him to work with a group of advisors and a board of engineers to put together a set of rules for "Race for the Future" to promote the invention and manufacture of vehicles powered by motors that run on renewable resources without polluting the atmosphere.
"When I first started this contest, I was very scared no one would show up. There was no way of knowing what the outcome might be, but each year we've had more and more people be a part of it," Halliar said.
The idea of the race is to challenge its inventors to come up with a machine or vehicle that will run five miles with some kind of alternate power. Finding an alternative power is very difficult, so last year, the use of electrical vehicles became allowed, although the use of solar and fuel cell technology remains prohibited.
Halliar has seen vehicles that have ranged anywhere from air powered cars to steam powered cars.
For the last two years, some of the cars were showcased at the La Porte County Fairgrounds on Earth Day.
The annual event is a get-together of several local inventors who can share their ideas with one another and learn from each other's work.
The race is held every year in May, which is also known as National Inventors Month.
The advisory board of Alternate Power Initiative is currently working on a Calumet Region Association of Inventors to help people broaden and strengthen their ideas and inventions. This will be the first association to help people with their ideas in LaPorte, Lake, Porter County and any other county in Northwest Indiana.
"When I started this race, the first thing I did was try to find inventor organizations in the area to notify them what we were doing, but there weren't any. So we are putting together this association of inventors to hopefully help local inventors turn their ideas into inventions and encourage people to use their creativity," Halliar said.
In addition to Alternate Power Initiative, he has been writing for The Beacher, a weekly newspaper based in Michigan City for the past two years.
"I like the writing because I like talking to people. I like telling their story in a creative way. I love engineering because I'm always inventing something. Since I'm retired, I have a lot of freedom to work on multiple projects wherever my heart might take me," Halliar said.
Halliar enjoys writing about history the most, and loves digging into the past to tell a story of what something once was.
"I'm curious and I like to know about where I am and who has done what around here. This is such a great area for history – there are so many things that have gone on and are still going on," Halliar said.
He has also been an active member of the Society of Innovators for Northwest Indiana for three years. The society seeks out local innovators to celebrate their accomplishments that have benefited the area.
Along with work and hobbies, Halliar has drawn inspiration through his family and his love for them. Halliar has been married to his wife Yo for sixteen years, and has three children and four grandchildren.
"My family is the joy of my life, and I am glad we are close together here," said Halliar.
In life, he values those who are always seeking ways to use their talents in creative ways and admires those who share their gifts with others.
Halliar has used his talents fully, and currently has twenty-five patents, most of them being various designs of rail cars and processes that were used to build those cars. He has also created various ways of modifying auto rack cars.
"My patents are the past, and my new ideas are the future," Halliar said.
Be sure to look out for Halliar in the future. If interested in being a part of the Race for the Future, go to http://alternatepowerinitiative.com/ for more information.