William Griffith was a professor of Adult Education at both the University of British Columbia and the University of Chicago. He also taught at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, the Australian National University and the University of Sydney. Along with being an active member of the Commission of Adult Education, the President of the Northwest Adult Education Association, the Chairman of the Commission of Professors of Adult Education and the President of the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education, he also served on the committee of the Adult Education Research Conference. He had varied research interests and was active in several organizations such as Planned Parenthood and Programs of Studies and Training in Correctional Education. William Griffith, casually known as Bill Griffith, also chaired the program committees for the AEA/USA and the NAPCAE national conferences and the Research Section of the National University Extension Association. He wrote extensively on Adult Education matters and contributed to the Adult Education Association Handbook Series in Adult Education in 1980-1981. In 1972-1973 he was named a Fulbright-Hayes Senior Research Fellow to Australia. He was awarded the AEA/USA's Research to Practice Award in 1980. He died on August 12, 1996, at the age of 64.