Bill Gorham died on December 28, 2021.

Bill Gorham was a distinguished Institute fellow and president emeritus of the Urban Institute, serving as the organization’s first president from 1968 to 2000. Past positions include assistant secretary for planning and evaluation at the US Department of Health & Human Services, cochairman of the President's Panel on Social Indicators, chairman of the President's Task Force on Child Development, and deputy assistant secretary of defense. He received the Distinguished Civilian Service Award from the US Department of Defense in 1965.

Gorham served on the boards of Insituform Technologies, Inc. and the Social Science Research Council. He held memberships with the US advisory committee of the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis as well as the International Commission on Education for the 21st Century, Delors Commission, UNESCO.

Gorham is currently a member of the National Academy of Public Administration, the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, and the Cosmos Club. He is on the board of the Price Philanthropies Foundation and the Jonas Center for Nursing and Veterans Healthcare. He serves on the editorial boards of both Policy Sciences and the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management and was coeditor of Urban Predicament (1976).

He holds a bachelor's degree from Stanford University and an honorary law degree from Trinity College.