William Howard (Bill) Glaze was born on November 21, 1934 and passed from this earth on December 17, 2014 at the age of 80. Bill was born in Sherman, Texas to Homer and Leta Leota Glaze. He moved to Dallas at the age of 6 and graduated from Sunset High School in 1952. He attended Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1956. He received a Master's of Science and a PhD from the University of Wisconsin in 1960. He then moved to Houston where he did a post-doctoral year at Rice University. In 1961 he became a Professor of Chemistry at North Texas State University, now the University of North Texas. He left UNT for the University of Texas at Dallas in 1980. In 1984 he became the Director of the Department of Environmental Sciences at UCLA. In 1989 he moved to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering. He was also founding Director of the Carolina Environmental Program and served in this position from 1997-2002. His research specialty was in water purification.

After retiring from UNC in 2002 he was asked to come to the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland to help establish a Center for Environmental Sciences. In 2005 he moved back to his home state of Texas settling in Georgetown. Bill's career was rewarded with many accolades such as awards from the American Chemical Society and Chair of the Science Advisory Board for the EPA. He had water purification grants from a number of federal agencies, cities, and companies from the US and abroad, including Coca Cola. He was the editor of the prestigious journal, Environmental Science and Technology, from 1988 to 2002. In 1999, he was selected to receive the prestigious Humboldt Research Award in Germany, a recognition of a researcher's entire scope of achievement's to academics whose fundamental discoveries, new theories and insights have had a significant impact on their own discipline. He spent a total of one year living in Germany cooperating on applicable research projects. Bill was selected by the American Chemical Society as one of the 15 scientists identified as "Legends of Environmental Chemistry". In 2009, Bill was honored again by the ACS with a symposium, and a special issue of "Environmental Science and Technology" was dedicated to him in 2010 (with a picture of Bill on the cover).

In 1956 he married his college sweetheart Erma, and they are parents of a son David (wife Heidi) living in Dripping Springs, Texas and a daughter Amy (husband Tom Ricci) living in Palos Verdes Estates, California. He was Papa to three grandchildren Niccolas, William, and Payton Ricci. He was also Papa to David and Heidi's 4 legged babies, Valentino and Gisele, as well as "daddy" to his beloved Cleo. Bill and Erma were apart for many years returning to marriage in September 2010 and Bill moved back to Denton. A memorial service is planned for Saturday, January 24, 2015 at 2:00 PM in Cole Chapel, First United Methodist Church in Denton. A reception will follow.