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Continued: William was born at home in Ridgway. After completing high school, William attended the University of Illinois for a year, then went to optometry school. William received a Doctor of Optometry degree from Pennsylvania State College of Optometry. He practiced in New Jersey for a short time, then practiced optometry in Gallatin County and Carmi before enlisting for service in World War II. In 1940, William was listed as an optometrist living at the Essex House (formerly Elks Home) in Newark, New Jersey. He sailed from Boston to England on the "West Point" on 19 July 1944. While in England he served at a hospital near Blandford and was in London on VE day. He returned to the U.S. on the "Queen Mary" on 2 Aug. 1945. The war ended while his unit was regrouping to leave for the Pacific.
After the War, William returned to the practice of optometry in Carmi. In early 1946, he went to visit Vera who he had met several years before when she roomed with William's sister Kathryn at the University of Illinois. In 1950, he returned to college at the University of Illinois where he received a Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Law degrees. In 1954, he was admitted to the Illinois Bar and practiced briefly in E. St. Louis before starting practice in Shawneetown in 1955. In 1960, he was elected State's Attorney, the only Republican elected to office in Gallatin County that year.
William was an extremely kind and gentle man and prosecuting never agreed with him. In 1961, he suffered a heart attack which forced him to retire from the law. Upon recovery he purchased an optometry practice in Rochelle, Illinois.
William had an undying love for the law and was able to return to it when he was appointed Magistrate in Ogle County. Several years later, he was elected Circuit Judge of the 15th Judicial Circuit, a position he dearly loved. Judge Phillips died of a heart attack in his home in Rochelle in 1973.
At his death a tribute by the Ogle County Bar Association said: "To Bill Phillips all people were equal before the law. The kings and the paupers who came before his bench were treated the same, for he applied the law fairly to everyone. You could joke with him and roar at the incomparable way he told his great stories. His humor was matched only by his love for the law. He was a true scholar in every sense of the word - and he demanded excellence."
Judge Phillips was an elder in the Presbyterian Church and a member of the Masonic Lodge.
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