Bill Pinkstaff was born and raised in Lawrenceville, IL where he graduated from Lawrenceville Township High School in 1949. After graduation he worked at a Texaco refinery in Lawrenceville before serving in the U.S. Navy from 1951-1954. In the Navy, Mr. Pinkstaff worked on Radar Operation and Maintenance aboard a destroyer and a Heavy Cruiser. He ended his career as "Leading Petty Officer" of the radar gang on the U.S.S. Saint Paul (heavy cruiser) during the Korean Conflict. In 1955, Mr. Pinkstaff enrolled as a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He worked summers at the Texaco Refinery in Lawrenceville, IL until his graduation in 1959.
After graduation, Bill Pinkstaff worked for Inland Steel Company for 31 years, serving in the industrial engineering, structural design, product enhancement and technical services departments. Always thinking of the Fighting Illini, Bill arranged for many student-athletes to work summer jobs at Inland Steel during his long career.
After retiring from Inland Steel in 1992, Mr. Pinkstaff lived in Munster, Indiana, where he worked with the football coach at East Chicago Washington H.S. to prepare students for the SAT and ACT tests. He also attended all home and away Illini football games, as well as traveling to weekend home basketball games.
In 1993, Mr. Pinkstaff moved to Champaign. Like most longtime supporters, Bill first donated his most valuable resource, his time. As a volunteer in the Northwest region of Illinois, Bill worked on several golf outing, caravan and Banquet committees. Bill expanded his involvement by donating to the Fighting Illini Scholarship Fund where he has been an active donor for over twenty years, easily qualifying him for membership in the President's Council. To this day, Bill still volunteers at summer camps, golf outings and the Athletic Ticket Office. Speaking of tickets, Bill has an amazing streak of nearly forty consecutive years as a season ticket holder, in fact he has only missed six football games in the last thirty years...that's home and away games.
