Son of to Clarence John and Melissa Keith Babel. His mother, Melissa Keith Babel, died in the influenza epidemic in October of 1918. William was just a little over a year old.
Living with his grandparents Wm & Clara Babel in North Tonawanda, Niagara Co, NY in 1920 and until he was married.
In 1932 when his father,Clarence died of Tuberculosis, Clarence's sister, Nora, succeeded in adopting him as he was officially an orphan. She is the 1st woman in the state of New York to legally adopt a child while single.
He met his wife when he attended the University of Maine to major in Botany at Orono, ME where he had an appendicitis attack and she was his nurse. The rest is history.
Editor, publisher, owner, Ottaway Newspapers, Oneonta, NY, Endicott, NY and Plattsburgh, NY, Bought own weekly publication in Orange, Mass 1962.
Died of Alzheimer's Disease/Parkinson's Disease.