Bill died Sept. 20, 2016, in Florida.
A graduate of Brooklyn (N.Y.) Technical High, he served for three years during World War II, mostly as a staff sergeant with the 331st Bomb Group of the 20th Air Force on Guam. He was art editor of the Nassau Sovereign and a member of Key and Seal. He graduated with high honors in architecture and continued his graduate studies at Princeton, earning a master’s degree in 1953.
After several jobs with New York architectural firms and becoming a licensed architect in 1957, he joined another firm and soon became its chief architect in Tehran, Iran. He remained there until 1961, when he was assigned to Rome. In 1967, he formed his own Italian company, Ahrens DiGrazia International, which designed and constructed hotels, educational and medical facilities, correctional institutions, and commercial facilities throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
In 1995 he returned to the United States, settling in Indian River Shores, Fla., where he became a councilman and vice mayor.
Bill received numerous honors, both overseas and domestically. One was Knight of the Equestrian Order of Saint Gregory the Great, conveyed by Pope John Paul II.
He was predeceased by his wife of 54 years, Joyce, who died in 2005. His second wife, Katherine Bledsoe, whom he married in 2006, died in 2013.