Bill was born in Washington D.C. He began collecting minerals, as a boy growing up in the D.C. suburbs near College Park, Maryland in in the late 1950’s after being inspired by the mineral display in the Smithsonian. He earned a BA in geology from George Washington University and MA and PhD degrees in geology from Indiana University. His PhD dissertation was on the Precambrian geology of the Tobacco Root Mountain in Montana. He taught courses in mineralogy, petrology, ore deposits, oceanography and general geology at the University of Wisconsin, River Falls for 39 years, retiring in 2012. Bill was chosen as the 1999- 2000 NACTA teaching merit award - outstanding teacher in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences at the University of Wisconsin- River Falls. He was selected as a Wisconsin Idea Fellow, 2004 -20005 and appointed a Fellow in the Geological Society of America, November, 2000. He also serves as a research associate for the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey.

Bill has over 50 professional publications on various aspects of geology, mostly involving Wisconsin. Major publications involve the Precambrian geology of Montana, Keweenawan volcanic rocks of Wisconsin and the Rock Elm and Pepin disturbances in Wisconsin. He is credited as the first to recognize the last two as meteorite impact structures. His compendium of Wisconsin minerals appeared in Rocks and Minerals magazine in 1998.,He has also compiled a “Minerals of Wisconsin “website housed with the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey http://wgnhs.uwex.edu/wisconsin-geology/minerals-wisconsin/ . He wrote over a 100 articles for amateur “rockhound” newsletters, and has been inducted into the National Rockhound and Lapidary Hall of Fame (educational division). His Academic Dean once referred to him as the “rockhound professor”, a term he initially abhorred but later came to embrace.

In retirement Bill continues to give talks and write for publication. He also made 14 short films in a series called “Rock Talk” about western Wisconsin geology that have been aired on local cable access channels. Bill is chair of the Geology committee of Midwest Federation of Mineralogical and Geological Societies, and writes frequently for their newsletter and does a monthly column for the newsletter of the Minnesota Mineral Club. He often mans rock and mineral ID tables at local shows. He also serves on the management group of MINDAT. On MINDAT he has done major work editing entries for Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Bill was the recipient of the 2013 Katherine Greacen Nelson Award for outstanding contributions to the earth sciences in Wisconsin. He was also the recipient of 3 Awards of Excellence from Wisconsin Community Media for his Rock Talk series. In 2016 he received an honorary award from the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies for distinguished achievements in the field of Earth Science.