[3] He attended various local schools, but his father John M. Rose, who was a Presbyterian minister, began to homeschool William in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew when he was 14 years old.
He took up graduate education at Yale University studying food chemistry with Russell Chittenden and Lafayette Mendel.
Taylor recommended him to University of Texas Galveston Medical School to organize a department of biochemistry.
He was appointed to the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council, which advised government agencies on dietary recommendations.
He recalled the role of Yale through the work of Samuel William Johnson, Chittenden, and Mendel in 1977 with the article "Recollections of personalities involved in the early history of American biochemistry".