He was professor emeritus of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, having retired in 1986.

[1] William was born on April 28, 1919 in Johnston County, North Carolina in a house built by his great-grandfather along the Neuse River between Smithfield and Goldsboro.

In 1920, his family moved to Statesville, North Carolina where his father gained employment with the State Highway and Public Works Commission.

[1][2] After college William worked briefly for the Statesville Record and began writing his first articles about North Carolina history for the Our State magazine.

When World War II started, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and was stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky and served overseas in the Philippines and Japan.

He won the Mayflower Cup for Nonfiction in 1989 for his book, North Carolina Through Four Centuries.