After graduating from high school in Alliance, NE, Bill spent three years in the US Navy prior to attending and graduating from El Camino College and the University of California at Los Angeles. He has also done graduate studies in business at Rutgers and Harvard Universities.
Bill has lived in Edmond since 1976 when he moved here from Princeton, New Jersey. He says that living in Princeton was a brief stop-over on his way to Oklahoma from California, where he lived for 14 years.
Bill and his wife, Diane, were married on July 7, 1962, at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Inglewood, Calif. They attended various Lutheran churches until discovering the Episcopal church, while living in Princeton. They have three grown children, who fortunately live in or close to Edmond. This means they get to see their two granddaughters as often as they like.
Attending a Cursillo weekend in 1977 marked the beginning of ever greater involvement for Bill in the activities of the church. This led eventually to studying for holy orders and Ordination to the Diaconate in June, 1993.
Current activities include participation in worship services at St. Mary’s. Each Sunday he leads an adult class, which does in-depth bible study, and he also makes pastoral calls on out folks who are shut-in or hospitalized. He trains new lay readers and chalice bearers and schedules all lay readers and chalice bearers for participation in worship services.
For the past few years, Bill has been the Chaplain at the Fountains at Canterbury Retirement Center in Oklahoma City. Deacon Hesse is the mentor of Education for Ministry seminar group, which has met for the past 13 years. He has been and is presently the Treasurer for the Edmond Ministerial Alliance. He is also a Certified Law Enforcement Chaplain and serves as a chaplain for the Edmond Police Department.
In his spare time, Bill performs the duties necessary of a business owner, being the owner of a computer consulting firm. If there is any time left over, he tries to get away on his sailboat.