William McCorkle graduated from The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1922. Before entering the ministry he taught high school at Anderson, South Carolina, and was an insurance salesman. He received his D.D. from King College in Bristol, Tennessee, in 1934, and was ordained a Presbyterian Minister in Knoxville in June 1929. He was commissioned a U.S. Naval Reserve chaplain on August 11, 1942, serving first at Marine Corps Barracks, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, until February 1943. He was then assigned to the Second Marine Raider Battalion, serving with them in combat in the Solomon Islands, where he earned a Silver Star and Purple Heart in November 1943. He completed his active duty assignment in 1944 as a lieutenant commander. In 1945, he went to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, as Academy Chaplain. Later, he was moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the United States, and retired from the ministry in 1965 after serving as interim minister for churches in North and South Carolina, and Florida.