Bill made the decision to donate his body to unique scientific studies. He was donated to Northern Michigan University’s FROST program where they focus on forensic taphonomy, which refers to the study of all human and natural forces that affect a human body after death. The research from these studies helps solve crimes and is often applied to cases involved unsolved deaths.

Bill is survived by, his sister, Muriel Shepherd, his children: Tiffany Glass (Jason) and Billy Shepherd (Melissa), his nephew and his niece and her two children, his two grandchildren and his two great grandsons.