William F. Quigley Jr. teaches history at The Governor’s Academy (Byfield, MA), the nation’s oldest nonsectarian independent boarding school, founded in 1763. During his 25 years at the Academy, he has served as head of the history department, dean of academics, and dean of faculty / assistant head of school. Bill currently coaches two varsity teams and is founding director of the Academy’s Writing Center. 

PURE HEART is Bill's first book, derived from the thesis he wrote for his master’s degree in history from Harvard University Extension School (2009). His thesis won a Dean’s Prize for Most Outstanding A.L.M. Thesis in the Social Sciences. Bill earned his B.A. in American Studies, with honors, from Middlebury College.

Prior to The Governor’s Academy, Bill taught at The Rivers School (Weston, MA), consulted to colleges, universities, and independent schools concerning their institutional marketing, worked as a journalist for a daily newspaper in Newburyport, MA, and started out as an editorial assistant and then assistant editor for a trade book publishing house in New York City.

As a journalist, Bill received a UPI New England Award for Community Service, 1st Place (1982), a UPI New England Award for Spot News, 1st Place (1982), and a National Education Reporting Award, 1st Place (1981), from the Education Writers Association. As a teacher, he is most proud of the regional and national awards and recognitions his students have received for their historical research and writing, including six papers published by The Concord Review, the only journal of secondary school scholarship in the world. He is a reader for the National Writing Board, which assesses research papers by high school students per standards of highly selective colleges.

Bill and his wife, Leslie, make their home in Cape Porpoise, ME. They have two grown daughters: Kelsey and Annie.