William was a graduate of McMaster University where he took his master’s degree in 1936. He took postgraduate studies in economics at the University of Chicago. In the following years he held positions in Detroit (Wayne University), Halifax, and at the University of Manitoba where he was chair of the faculty of commerce.

During the eight years prior to his death, he headed his own firm of associates and was a consulting economist dealing with major Canadian industrial and financial companies. From 1944 to 1954 he was the chief economist of the Canadian Bank of Commerce and during World War II was an adviser on industrial relations to the Wartime Prices and Trade Board.

He was a contributor to numerous professional publications and the author of several books.