He was born Dec. 10, 1933, in Memphis and was valedictorian at the Middlesex School in Concord, Mass.. At Princeton, he joined Court Club, struggled with the homophobia of the McCarthy era, and left after his sophomore year. He worked in an Alaska gold mine, hitchhiked to Seattle, enlisted in the Army, and served at the Army language school in Monterey, Calif. Then he worked as a French interpreter for the CIA on Saipan.
After active duty, Bill earned a bachelor’s degree in history at the University of Tennessee in 1957. He joined the doctoral program at Cornell, spent a year of research at the University of Naples, and went back to Princeton and earned a Ph.D.
Bill said he had attended nine universities and taught at nine, winding up at the University of Massachusetts Boston, deeming it the best school he ever taught at.
In 1973, Bill came out, publishing articles on homosexuality in the Gay Community News. He also continued his traditional scholarship as co-author of The Age of Recovery: The Fifteenth Century. Bill was co-associate editor of the Encyclopedia of Homosexuality. He also combined his expertise in ancient and medieval history and interest in gay subjects with many scholarly articles, short notes, and book reviews in print and online journals. He also invested in real estate in Boston’s South End and became financially independent.
After his retirement in 2011, he held visiting professional positions at Washington University in St. Louis, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Northeastern University, Norfolk Correctional Facility in Walpole, Mass., and Norfolk State Prison.
Bill is survived by his longtime partner, Barry Ahern; and sister Anne Percy Knott.