Rev. Father William (Bill) Maurice s.j. was born in 1916 to parents Tansi and Rose Maurice. William had 12 siblings including: John, Peter, George, Joseph, Patrick, Francis, Thomas, Frederick, James, Laura, Mary, and Florence. He was a missionary to the First Nation communities of the Diocese of Thunder Bay and Sault Ste Marie. He was a math teacher, a prefect of studies, and eventually a principal of the Garnier Residential School in Spanish, Ontario. He also ran a photo lab at the Spanish school.
When the Garnier school closed in 1958, William briefly worked in Regina teaching and coaching students. In the 1960s he was a chaplain at the Radar Base for American and Canadian soldiers. He later became responsible for the 12 missions from St. Anne's Parish on the Fort William First Nation.
In 1967, William assisted Indian Affairs with community development. In 1972, he worked as a community and social services worker in Armstrong, Ontario. He was also an assistant band manager for the Fort William First Nation. He briefly served as the chaplain for the Thunder Bay Correction Services and the district jail.
He was asked to become pastor of Wikwemikong Reserve on Manitoulin Island and eventually became the Jesuit Superior for that region. He also coached hockey for the Thunder Birds hockey team on Manitoulin Island.
In 1984 William returned to Thunder Bay to become the Jesuit Superior of the region and the pastor at Beardmore.
His retirement years were spent classifying genealogies from the Northwestern Ontario missions where Jesuits had worked since the 1850s. He created indexes of names which included many Indigenous people from the Northwest. He also collected, transcribed, and translated the journals of the early Jesuit missionaries in the Northwest.
Rev. William Maurice lived at St. Anne's Parish Rectory on the Fort William First Nation from 1991 until he passed away on Monday April 14, 2008 at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Science Center. A tree was planted in Memory of Rev. William Maurice in the Blake Funeral Chapel Memorial Grove.
