Bill McDowell was born in Brownwood, Missouri on the edge of the great dark cypress swamps. He grew to maturity in the Church of Christ in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, attended Central High School, and left for Nashville to attend David Lipscomb University. There he majored in Speech and Bible graduating cum laude, and was selected by Lipscomb faculty as one of the two most representative preachers to graduate in 1960. Bill earned a Master's of Divinity degree from Emory University Chandler School of Theology and United Theological Seminaries. After ten years of full time ministry in Churches of Christ Bill entered Kent State University and in 1971 he completed his Master's of Education and earned his PhD in rehabilitation and counseling psychology. Bill joined the counseling faculty at Marshall University in Huntington, WV in 1971 and served as professor and department chair until he retired in 2000. He returned in 2003 as professor and department chair, working until his "final" retirement in 2008, only to return in 2014 to serve one year as Director of the Chancellor's Scholars Program recruiting minority students for doctoral programs. During his ministerial career, Bill has served churches in Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia. After retirement he returned to his first love of studying biblical theology. Among his writings are There's Good News in the World (2011), The Story of My Life: From the Edge of the Great Dark Cypress Swamps to the Mountains of Appalachia (2012), and Before the Foundation of the World: Connecting Foundations of Faith To Christian Living (2014)