William Henry Byrd was born on October 6, 1923. Byrd worked as a high school teacher and a mountain climbing guide prior to his time working in the Peace Corps. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara recruited Byrd in 1961 to run the Peace Corps training camps in Puerto Rico. Byrd served as director of the training camps until 1963 when he moved back to Eugene, Oregon, and worked as a legal investigator, and later ran the Outward Bound School. William Byrd died August 11, 2008, in Eugene, Oregon.