William Garden was born in 1918. He attended the Edison Boatbuilding School in Seattle and then went to work for Andrew's Boat Company for several years before forming his own company in 1940. Drafted by the US Army during World War II, Garden was posted at the Adak Ship Repair Base in the Aleutian Islands. Discharged in spring 1946, Garden became a licensed Naval Architect a year and a half later. His design business continued to grow, and in 1968 he relocated to an island in British Columbia. His early work consisted of mainly fishing boats -- seiners, gillnet boats, halibut boats, and trollers -- while his later work primarily involves yacht designs. He contributed articles and designs to Rudder, Yachting, WoodenBoat and other maritime publications, and he wrote several books about his designs, including "100 Yacht and Vessel Designs: From the Board of William Garden," circa 1971, "Yacht Designs," 1977, "Yacht Designs II," 1992 and "Yacht Designs: Revised and Expanded."