William Ira Hilliard was born December 21, 1888, in Martin, South Dakota.  He lived with his parents in Battle Creek, Michigan at the time of the Sanitarium fire there.  The family moved to Iowa when Ellen White urged people to move out of Battle Creek. His father employed a lady to teach his children in the beginning days of church schools.  William was the oldest of eight children; he had two brothers and five sisters. 

He finished academy at Walla Walla in 1913 and entered Glendale Sanitarium to take nursing school.  He graduated in June, 1916 and married his classmate Jessie Emma Allen.

They sailed for China in September to assist Dr. Charles Landis in opening the first Seventh-day Adventist Hospital in Shanghai, the Old Red Cross Hospital.  He served as a nurse, gave hydrotherapy treatments and kept the books.  Their first-born son, Albert Manley, died in a day or two after hisbirth.  William Albert was born May 21, 1920.

Probably the next year they moved to Yencheng, Honan, as treasurer, working with W. E. Strickland, B. C. Clark, E. L. Longway, Dr. Butka, and others. Another son, Warren Ivan, was born there on March 7, 1922.

During the Civil war they were refugees in Shanghai and later assigned as Treasurer of the Central China Union Mission in Hankow, Hupei where he served until furlough in 1931.  The family returned to the United States via the Trans-Siberian Railway, and Central Europe and England.

Following furlough, he was assigned as Treasurer of the Manchurian Union Mission, along with F. M. Larson, H. R. Broderson, Nils Dahlsten, and Otis Erich. In l937, as the war was beginning, he was transferred to Chungking, Szechuan, as Union Mission Treasurer and served there until furlough in 1940.

At the 1941 General Conference, he was appointed China Division Treasurer and assigned to the new headquarters in Baguio, Philippines.  Mother was not given a passport, and he went alone.  He was interned by the Japanese after Pearl Harbor until his release in 1945.

After a furlough period he was assigned as acting treasurer for the China Division and also as the East China Union Treasurer—both in Shanghai.

When the Communists moved south, he, with the Division and Union staff, moved to Hong Kong.

From there he was assigned to the Japan Union Mission, working again with E. L. Longway.  After a couple of years there, he was assigned to Taiwan as South China Island Union Mission as where he served until retirement in 1963.

He lived in retirement at Angwin, California, until September, 1970 when he moved to Placerville, California.  He died there March 18, 1971.  He was preceded in death by his wife, Jessie, on December 8, 1970.

He was affectionately known as “Uncle Billie” by nearly everyone who knew him.