It may be Deacon Bill Necessary. From the Tyler Morning Telegraph:
Deacon Bill Necessary has always wanted to save people. By day, he’s a mild-mannered theology teacher and assistant chaplain at Bishop T.K. Gorman Catholic School, but at night he brings classic superhero and serial characters to life as a cosplayer. “I want to show that people of faith can be everyday people,” he said. “They can be a nerd and a person of faith. They’re not mutually exclusive.” Necessary has loved all things geek for as long as he can remember. The walls of his classroom are lined with memorabilia that won’t fit anywhere at his house. The love of pop culture helps him connect with his students. They know that his class is filled with cool toys, and each day he wears a superman shirt under his vestment. But it still blows the students away when they see him around town dressed as Batman. Seeing Necessary dressed as the Adam West version of Batman brought a passerby to tears during a recent commercial shoot for the upcoming Tyler Rose City Comic Con at the Liberty Theater. The woman said she was dealing with the death of her brother and seeing his favorite character on the street really lifted her spirits. Like Batman, Necessary instills in his young students a sense of responsibility and respect. During a recent advisory period with eighth grade boys, he discussed peer pressure and how the boys should conduct themselves. “The most rewarding aspect of my job is when someone comes up to me and says, ‘I was having a very hard time and you helped me through this,’” he said. “I’ve had students come back to me after graduating and tell me when they were going through a tough time in college and were about to make a moral decision that would affect them in a negative way, they remembered something I said.”
Check out the rest.
Photo: Tyler Telegraph, courtesy Deacon Bill Necessary
And today we celebrate...