Meet Bill Huff, our friendly neighborhood handyman

Call beloved neighborhood handyman Bill Huff, and you know your squeak, drip or flicker will soon be repaired. But what you likely don’t know is his long and winding history in East Dallas that ultimately set him on the fix-it path. 

He knows this part of town well, and it was here where he developed a work ethic and learned how to fix darn near everything. Growing up in the Casa View area, he was raised by hard-working parents, a dad who toiled as a mechanic and a mom who worked as a nurse. They taught him the value of self-reliance, repairing and reusing.  

“They both lived through the Depression and left to their own devices to repair or improve what needed to be fixed,” he says. “Being fairly able bodied and available, my father, my uncles, just about anyone who needed a hand doing something used the term ‘hey kid,’ and the next thing I knew I was loosening a drain plug on someone’s car engine or climbing up a ladder to cut off a hanging limb. I was taught all sorts of tasks and taught to do them correctly. Fixed things were to stay fixed.”

Because he never received an allowance, Huff started his first job at the age of 9, helping the janitor at his elementary school clean restrooms and classrooms. He earned the princely sum of $3.50 per week.

But it was enough for his 9-year-old lifestyle. With a pocket full of money, Huff and friends spent every weekend on an adventure in downtown Dallas, riding the bus from his home on Myrtice Drive to Main Street for 13 cents, catching a movie for a quarter at The Palace or The Majestic, and shopping at H.L. Green’s Five & Dime. And there might have been a few times when he and his buddies were kicked out of “every department store downtown,” apparently unwelcome guests when unaccompanied by parents.

During his years at Bishop Lynch High School, he worked long hours seven days per week at the Adams Pharmacy lunch counter, bussing tables and doing kitchen prep and fry cook duties after school and on weekends.  

In between all his regular jobs, Huff was learning about auto mechanics from his father, roofing from his grandfather, plumbing from his uncle and electrician skills from a summer job. He also picked up various home repair and remodel trades here and there — drywall, wallpapering, painting and others.

After graduating from high school — Bishop Lynch’s first graduating class, by the way — he enrolled at Stephen F. Austin State University but left after a year because it just didn’t suit him.   

 The Vietnam War rolled around, and Huff decided the military might be just the thing, despite his vehement opposition to the war, no doubt influenced by his reading of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self-Reliance, as well as his own research from reading Newsweek, Time and other magazines at the library.

When he explained to an Air Force recruiter that he had no interest in guns or killing, he was assured the military had other jobs for him. But it was not to be; health issues put the kibosh on his enlistment.

What followed was a series of jobs, mostly for paint companies. He also owned a pizza franchise for a while and sold musical instruments, though he laughs, “I don’t know a G note from anything.”

In 1983, Huff decided to strike out on his own in the repair and remodeling business and soon found plenty of commercial and residential work. But over time, he dropped restaurants and apartments for old-fashioned handyman jobs for homeowners.   

Semi-retired for the last 10 years or so, he enjoys the luxury of being persnickety about his customers (he prefers older types, closer to his age of 73) and where he is willing to travel for his work.  

“I’ve stopped going north of Mockingbird Lane,” he says, only half-jokingly. “I love the older, wiser, more interesting company.”

Huff favors the lovely old homes gracing our area, a plethora of Tudor, Craftsman, Prairie and Spanish Colonial structures.  

He’s highly regarded and always busy.

“I don’t advertise nor am I seeking any new customers,” he says. “I seem to stay as busy as I want to be without doing that.” 

Referrals come from suppliers, namely Lakewood Ace Hardware, as well as tradesmen and friends. He tests the waters by chatting with a potential new customer. 

“A pleasant initial conversation means a lot in determining if I might work for someone,” he explains.

With the elderly especially, he’s careful to tend not only to the drippy faucet or flickering lamp but basic safety features. He makes sure his customers have smoke alarms and grab bars and looks for hazards such as rugs on slippery floors, overloaded sockets and flammable materials near water heaters and furnaces.

Over the years, he’s tackled nearly every task, from complex remodels to no-brainers.

“I’d hate to count how many times I’ve gone to check out a light not working, only to change the light bulb,” he says.

He’s also patiently dealt with, ahem, difficult types.

“One time, a buddy and I painted the outside of a house three times, one after another, because the owner didn’t like the colors she had selected,” he says.

Finding solutions is immensely gratifying to him. Naturally, he finds some jobs more rewarding than others and waxes almost poetic about them — mortising wood, fitting pipe, cutting in paint with a brush or hanging wallpaper, for example.

“Putty glazing wooden windows on a cool day when the glazing doesn’t get too warm and become too soft to tool is actually relaxing for old men like me,” he says.

His stellar work and affable manner with customers endear him and has resulted in unexpected perks. Over the years, his customers have surprised him with tamales, new suits, concert tickets, furniture and an open invitation to use a mountain cabin.

And books, lots of books, many from SMU professors who are longtime customers.  

“History is my favorite subject, and it’s good to know history professors,” he says. “I get free lectures and book recommendations while working for them.”

No slouch himself, Huff is a history professor disguised as a handyman and can deliver a lecture on Theodore Roosevelt just as easily as Plumbing 101. Get him started, and he will happily talk your ear off about his latest read.

As Huff drives around East Dallas, he frequently sees his work still holding up, even decades later. 

He has met and developed good relations with licensed, fair, professional tradesmen, and he sometimes refers his customers to those he trusts. “That way I don’t worry about my customers being mistreated,” he explains.

Huff pulls out a key ring, laden with more than a dozen keys.

“See this?” he says. “These are keys to my customers’ doors. Notice they’re not labeled — just in case it’s ever stolen.” 

Huff cares about his customers, but he admits he ponders retirement from time to time. He’s been working since he was in elementary school; maybe it’s time to rest. But he says he worries. Who would take care of his customers? Would they be dealt with honestly?

And he says he would miss one particular thing from his customers.

“It may sound hokey,” he smiles, “but that smile on their face, that customer satisfaction.”