William Michael Gillette was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1941. A few years later, he moved with his family to Milton-Freewater, Oregon. In 1963, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, and in 1966, he earned a law degree from Harvard University. Later that year, he joined the law firm of Rives and Rogers in Portland, Oregon. He worked as a prosecutor for the Multnomah County district attorney’s office, then from 1969 to 1971, he served as an assistant attorney general for American Samoa. In 1971, he returned to Portland and served as chief counsel of the Consumer Protection Division of the Oregon attorney general’s office. In 1973, he became solicitor general of Oregon. From 1977 to 1986, he served as a judge on the Oregon Court of Appeals, and from 1986 to 2010, he served as a justice on the Oregon Supreme Court. After retiring from the court, he joined the Schwabe, Williamson, and Wyatt law firm in Portland. He also taught at Portland State University, at the Northwest College of Law at Lewis and Clark College, and at Willamette University.

Gillette was married twice. His first marriage was to Judy Saima Cox, in 1960; they had two children and later divorced. He remarried to Toni Boone.

Sources: Vital records on Ancestry.com; information provided by Gillette in his interview.