Voice of America Interview:
About the Author
Born in a Montana coal and cattle town, William C. (Bill) Pack grew up in an environment beset by all the attendant difficulties. At 15 years old he left home, becoming his own sole provider. At 16 he dropped out of high school. At 17 he married and at 18 he became a father. He worked variously as a truck driver, a bartender, a fry cook, a loading dock worker, and a broadcast ad-man. He earned a GED, and no more.
At 21, Bill was hired as a broker with a major Wall Street firm. In time, he became the youngest Executive VP/Divisional Director in the brokerage arm of the largest financial firm on earth. Simultaneously, for several years, he was CEO of a private food manufacturing/distribution company affiliated with Beatrice Foods. He served a prestigious 3-year appointment with the NASD (now FINRA), the S.E.C.'s partner in creating and enforcing rules and regulations on Wall Street. Along the way, through Menttium 100, Bill served as a volunteer mentor for female executives at both Hewlett Packard and JPMorgan. He has pitched in at or helped fund many charities, particularly women's and children's advocacy groups. At 43 he became seriously ill and left Wall Street to pursue lifelong goals, the greatest of which was to be a novelist.
Bill took the SATs and earned a slot at Stanford University as the oldest undergraduate on campus (43-46), and perhaps the only one with a GED. After three years, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa with distinction and honors. He was the only undergraduate chosen to head up an archaeological project. His thesis received the Annual Reviews Prize in Anthropological Sciences.
In 2007 Bill published his first short story, Saints and Patrons. The Bottom of the Sky is his first novel. He is writing the second.
Bill Pack is married with four grown children. He lives in America. He has a big dog and four pair of blue jeans--two more than necessary.
Bill Pack and The Bottom of the Sky on Forbes.Com
