William Proctor Wilson (July 2, 1921 – March 7, 2010) was CEO of The

Butterick Publishing Company The Butterick Publishing Company was founded by Ebenezer Butterick to distribute the first graded pattern (sewing), sewing patterns. By 1867, it had released its first magazine, ''Ladies Quarterly of Broadway Fashions,'' followed by ''The Metropoli ...

. As President and CEO, Wilson led one of the first

leveraged buyout A leveraged buyout (LBO) is one company's acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money (leverage) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loan ...

s of the 1980s when a Butterick management group headed by Bill Wilson and John Lehmann purchased the company from American Can. The buyout was $12.5 million, of which all but $500,000 was borrowed. Wilson grew up the middle of three children born to Trevett Abbot Wilson of

Warren, Rhode Island Warren is a town in Bristol County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 11,147 at the 2020 census. History Warren was the site of the Pokanoket Indian settlement of Sowams located on a peninsula within the Pokanoket region. The reg ...

and Jesse Proctor of New York. He descended from a long line of influential figures in Rhode Island history,

Roger Williams Roger Williams (21 September 1603between 27 January and 15 March 1683) was an English-born New England Puritan minister, theologian, and author who founded Providence Plantations, which became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation ...

, Nathan Miller, Joel Abbot, and

Thomas G. Turner Thomas Goodwin Turner (October 24, 1810 – January 3, 1875) was an American politician and businessman who was the 26th Governor of Rhode Island from 1859 to 1860. Early life Turner was born in Warren, Rhode Island, Warren in Bristol County ...

. He was married to Mildred Annette Smith for many years with whom he had two daughters. They divorced in 1976. Later in life, he married his third wife Leona Rocha of Maui, Hawaii, the inventor of the fashion ruler and the 2010 elected member to the Board of Education Maui Residency Seat for the Hawaii Department of Education. The two had worked together at The Butterick Publishing Company when she was their national spokesperson and he the CEO; they remained married until his death in 2010. He, with his wife Leona Rocha, established the William & Leona Wilson Scholarship Fund at the

University of Hawaii Maui College A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

.http://www.pbshawaii.org/ourproductions/longstory_transcripts/LSS%20320%20Transcript%20-%20Leona%20Rocha%20Wilson.pdf

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, William Proctor 1921 births 2010 deaths American publishers (people)