William Siegel Obituary

Siegel, William, Arthur "Bill" SIEGEL,

Bill Siegel brought his deep, strong heart to everything that interested him, and widely shared his wisdom, whip-smart humor, and keen insights. A father who was thrilled by and committed to his two kids, Louie and Johanna, Bill was also a brilliant filmmaker, educator, storyteller, interlocutor, teacher, mentor, activist and life-long friend to an impossibly large number of people.

An internationally acclaimed award-winning documentary filmmaker, Bill co-directed and produced The Weather Underground (2003), which premiered at Sundance, was included in the Whitney Biennial, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary. He produced, directed, and researched The Trials of Muhammad Ali (2013), which focused on Ali's emergence as a political activist, as the boxer refused Vietnam War military service, sacrificed his career, embraced Islam and became an internationally treasured voice for social justice. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, aired on PBS, and earned many awards and three Emmy nominations, including Best Documentary, and won an Emmy for Outstanding Long-Form Historical Programming.

Bill completed both of these feature-length films while holding down a demanding day job at The Great Books Foundation, where he served in roles ranging from Trainer to Vice President of School Programs and co-founded its Digital Media department.

As a child Bill was driven by passionate interests: baseball, the Little Rascals, the biography of Rasputin, anything having to do with Rod Carew, trading cards, and comic books. After graduating from The Blake Schools Bill pursued his B.A. in history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he became increasingly drawn to learn about politics and social change. As he earned his M.S. degree at the Columbia University School of Journalism Bill worked on archival film research for projects on Muhammad Ali, work that led to a research job on Hoop Dreams.

Bill's calling was to connect modern audiences, especially young people, with stories from history, using a modern dialect to deepen viewers' critical thinking and political engagement. Creating from a place of integrity and curiosity, he gained the trust and respect of those whose stories he told. As Bill Ayers commented, Bill was "one of the keenest observers of our wild, diverse humanity that I've ever known. He saw our greatness and our weirdness, took it all in, and worked to make us a little wiser, a little more joyful and just, a bit more peaceful and understanding and loving."

Bill honed his craft as prober of people's thinking during his twenty three years at Great Books, where he led more than a thousand seminars in all types and sizes of schools-urban, suburban, rural, public, private, charter and faith-based-guiding thousands of teachers in using a Socratic approach to pose questions and then back off to let students answer them.

Bill's final completed project, which he was immensely proud of, was a WETA television study guide and webinar for Ken Burns and Lynne Novick's series, The Vietnam War. Bill's current feature-length documentary-in-process recently received enthusiastic PBS Independent Lens funding. Titled America Sells Itself, the film mines the United States Information Agency (USIA) archives to investigate the U.S. government's Cold War era effort to sell American-style democracy.

Bill loved baseball and rock and roll, and was lead visionary, front man, lyricist and composer for his band, the Willis Project, which had a NYC premiere at CBGB. A proud Bad Jew and sauna bathing Finn, he held his family and their Minnesota cabin culture at the center of his being.

In his 2016 article, following the launch of The Trials of Muhammad Ali, Bill wrote, "When you're Muhammad Ali, on the threshold of history looking forward, not knowing how it is going to turn out and being nonetheless ready to go to jail and sacrifice your career, the idea of being who you want to be defines courage. In that sense, we are all Muhammad Ali. We're all making history every day... There will never be another Muhammad Ali within the boxing ring. But beyond the boxing ring, he represents the capacity we all have to live truly moral, principled and humane lives." Bill did just that: he worked, tirelessly, to live a truly moral, principled, and humane life. He worked to find the courage to figure out how to be who he wanted to be, not knowing how it would turn out.

Bill was predeceased by father Richard, mother Libby, and infant brother David, and in addition to children Louie and Johanna, he is mourned by sisters, Ellie (William Warren) Siegel, Janet Ha, Margie (Scott Horne) Siegel; his former wife, Lauren Goffen, partner Kim Wade, and seven nieces and nephews, each of whom, like Bill's countless friends, felt a unique and life-forming bond with him. Bill will be remembered for his kindness and generosity, his charm, his fearless and ferocious curiosity, his incisive intelligence, his spirited sense of humor--and for his pleasure in being alive.

Service Saturday December 15th, 6:00 p.m. at Chicago Jewish Funerals, 8851 Skokie Blvd., (at Niles Center Road) Skokie, IL, followed by a gathering at the same location. Memorials in Bill's name to an organization of the donor's choice would be appreciated, or A gathering will follow the service. For charity information, including contributions to Bill's childrens' college education, please visit www.cjfinfo.com for updated information. Arrangements by Chicago Jewish Funerals Skokie-Chapel 847.229.8822, www.cjfinfo.com