William H. “Bill” Roedy was born June 13, 1948 in Waltham, Massachusetts and relocated to Miami, Florida in 1952. From a young age Bill was taught military values as his father was a Veteran who had survived the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Bill’s older sister Peggy was born just days after the attack.

Bill attended elementary school at William Jennings Elementary School and Natural Bridge Elementary, and attended junior high school at North Miami Junior High. He graduated from North Miami High School in 1966. In high school, Bill ran track and field and played football, instilling in him leadership skills that will inform his life later on.

The son of a working single mother, Bill spent many years of his youth working a variety of odd jobs around Miami - selling newspapers for the Miami Herald, cleaning air filters at Wolfie’s in South Beach, and mowing lawns - until he departed for college.