After a difficult youth of violence and petty crime, Bill attended a theological college at the age of twenty-one. At twenty-three he started working as the manager of a drop-in and alcoholic rehabilitation centre in Melbourne, and subsequently became the youngest-ever superintendent of the Ballarat City Mission in its history of more than a century. He has dedicated his life and career to helping and inspiring disadvantaged people to realise their own potential, working with prisoners and those with special needs for many years. In his fifties, Bill completed a Bachelor of Arts at Deakin University, the first of many qualifications, including as a life coach. Throughout much of his life he has been an ultramarathon runner, and has competed with the world's best Yiannis Kouros and folk hero Cliffy Young a number of times in the famous Colac Six-Day Race. The enormous resilience he has displayed in his running and throughout his life has been an inspiration and a model for others.