Bill’s work career has been varied and interesting.  He has been an apprentice Ironworker (Local 17); worked as a cub reporter for a small town newspaper (Sandusky Register); a television reporter for a major television station (Channel 4, Columbus); a union organizer for both the Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO and the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association (OCSEA); a small business owner in Geneva On the Lake; a small town lawyer (Geneva); and a Pediatric Emergency Room nurse at a major hospital. (Cleveland Clinic). Bill went to law school on the GI Bill and  served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Ohio for twelve years before being elected to the 11th District Court of Appeals in 1996. He served two terms as Presiding Judge on the Court and sat by assignment on the Supreme Court of Ohio.  In 2004 and 2006 Bill was the Democratic nominee for the Supreme Court and his legendary refusal to accept contributions as a Judge, “No Money From No Body”  landed him on the front page of the Sunday New York Times.

At age 50, Bill went back to school to become a nurse, and now he works nights in the pediatric ER of Hillcrest Hospital, an affiliate of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.  He’s a proud father of four grown children, whom he raised alone after their mother, Shaylah, died in a car accident  in 1995. His son Shawn served as a Loadmaster on a C-130 in Iraq and Afghanistan with the United States Air Force.  Shawn’s twin sister Katie was a community organizer in Portland Oregon for several years and is now a Senior at Ohio University.  Tiffany O’Neill, another Ohio University graduate, is a professional photographer in Chicago; and Brandon, the youngest of the O’Neill children is a Senior at Kent State University.