Bill was Editor-in-Chief of Business & Commercial Aviation from 2000 to 2020. During his stewardship, the monthly magazine received scores of awards for editorial excellence.
He is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement in Journalism Award from the National Business Aviation Association; the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Aerospace Media Awards; the Aviation Journalism Award from the National Air Transportation Association; and an Aerospace Journalist of the Year Award for Business Aviation.
Previously, Bill served as Managing Editor of Aviation Week Television. He was the top editor for both Flying and Professional Pilot magazines, as well as a member of the senior editorial staff at Reader's Digest. He also managed communications for FlightSafety International.
Bill has authored or co-authored three aviation books, was an essayist for National Public Radio, wrote aviation documentaries for The Discovery Channel and has written for numerous publications including The New York Times, Smithsonian Air & Space, Popular Mechanics and The Associated Press, among others.
An active aviator, Bill holds a Commercial Pilot license, along with multiengine, instrument, seaplane and glider ratings.
MY WIFE HAS SIX SIBLINGS, as do I, and most of them are married. We sibs and our spouses have pursued various career paths, becoming medical doctors, college professors, an attorney, a designer, a banker, a marketer, a writer, a dentist and homemakers. And one aviation editor.
Each year B/CA editors honor individuals within business aviation who have demonstrated an unusually high commitment to the community and its betterment -- through improved equipment, operations, regulation or advocacy. Over the years these leaders have come from industry, associations, government and elsewhere, and have hailed from North America, Europe and Asia. The criteria they all meet and the characteristic they all share is effective excellence in furthering business aviation.
I was standing in the PrivatAir exhibit at EBACE, chatting with Dave Hurley, an old friend who's now the outfit's vice chairman. Upon mentioning that I hoped to visit friends in Germany, he volunteered, ``Well then, you've got to fly with us.'' I hesitated. After all, this would complicate ground travel and schedules, I'd wind up at the wrong airport, my hotel reservations were elsewhere. A quandary. Fully three seconds passed before I accepted.
