Bill Jackson was born in Chickasha, Oklahoma on July 14, 1917. He attended the Kansas City Art Institute to learn drawing, where he took classes in painting with Thomas Hart Benton. He was working for Ted Hawkins in Oklahoma City when Hawkins heard about jobs at McCormick-Armstrong in Wichita, Kansas and got jobs for both of them. During World War II Jackson served in the United States Navy Reserve as a chief in the Seabees from 1942 to 1945. He married Elinor Wolf on November 21, 1941. They had two sons, Mike and Doug.

At McCormick-Armstrong Jackson worked as a staff artist and worked his up through the ranks to assistant director, ending by becoming the head of their typographical design department. He also worked at Wichita State University, designing some of their publications. He retired from Wichita State in 1982.

His interest in printing extended into his private life, and he started two private presses in his home and other locations in Wichita: the Four Ducks Press and the Groundhog Press. The Four Ducks name, quoting from Jackson himself "is from its geographical location: 2222 (i.e. four ducks in poker parlance) Rivera in Wichita, Kansas, USA." (Four Ducks Press, n.d.) His first publication from Four Ducks Press was Ladle Rat Rotten Hut, the story of Little Red Riding Hood told in other, but similar sounding words, written by H. L. Chace in 1940. This little book sets the tenor of the press, for most of his material is light-hearted and amusing, but serious in its pursuit of excellence.

Bill Jackson died September 30, 2003.