After teaching at Union College for a brief period, he took over the family business of Bronk Coal and Lumber after his father's early death.

William Bronk was born in 1918 in a house on Lower Main Street in Fort Edward, New York.

Their mother was a homemaker and their father ran his business, Bronk Coal and Lumber, in Hudson Falls.

"[2] Bronk was drafted into the Army soon after the United States entered World War II.

After serving as a private, he was admitted to OCS, and was commissioned as an officer after completion of the program.