William Edward Osgood was born on March 24, 1926, in Nashua, New Hampshire, the fifth and last child of Horace Edward and Ethel Hale (Trow) Osgood. He was educated in the Nashua public schools. In 1944 he was inducted into the U.S. Army and volunteered for service with the 10th Mountain Division where he was a combat infantryman during the Italian campaign of World War II. He was honorably discharged in 1946 and in 1947 matriculated as a student at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. He graduated cum laude in 1951. He received a Master's degree in Library Science from Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1952. Osgood married Thelma Slabaugh of Akron, Ohio, in 1949. They have two children; Kathleen, born in 1951; and Deborah, born in 1954.
The Osgood family moved to Ohio in 1952 where Osgood was the Tuscarawas County Librarian. In 1953 the Osgoods relocated to Hanover, N.H., where Osgood was a Reference Assistant at Baker Library of Dartmouth College. The next move was to Vermont. Osgood was Adult Services Librarian for the Vermont Free Public Library Service from 1955-1956. Osgood was appointed Librarian at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont, in 1957 and remained there until 1972. During the years 1968-1969 the family lived in Finland while Osgood was on sabbatical leave. In 1972 Osgood became the Librarian at the Center for Northern Studies in Wolcott, Vermont.
From the description of William E. Osgood papers, 1937-1998. (Vermont Historical Society). WorldCat record id: 39000937
