Bill died February 5, 2017, in Blanco, Texas. He grew up in Idaho and moved to Ogden, Utah, where he graduated from high school. Bill's father, Floyd, had a career in the USFS and in 1950 when he started smokejumping, his father was Regional Fire Control Director for Region Four. Bill was a smokejumper in 1950 and 1951 at McCall, Idaho, and had five fire jumps in 1950 and eight in 1951.

In 1950, he attended Colorado A&M College enrolling in the school of Veterinary Medicine, receiving his DVM in 1954. Upon graduation from Veterinarian School, Bill began a twenty-three-career with the Air force.

While in the Air Force, he received a MS degree in Radiation Biology from the University of Rochester in 1962 and graduated from the Armed Forces Staff College in 1966. By 1969, he was a Lieutenant Colonel and was assigned to the Defense Atomic Support Agency at Brooks AFB, Texas, retiring in 1978.