Bill was a very accomplished pool player who played under the road name Colorado Slim. In 1968 he and his good friend Dan Janes were tiring of the road player lifestyle and decided to start their own cue building company. They called it Joss Cues. In 1972 Bill decided to go out on his own and started building cues under the name Joss West. Bill is credited with being among the first to go the high tech route on his cues with CNC (Computer Numerical Controlled) machinery. He never produced the many thousands of cues that his old company has, but instead concentrated on higher end cue building. Bill started the International Cue Collectors Show and served as President of the American Cuemakers Association for a period of time. Bill has been considered one of the top cuemakers in the world for decades now and his cues are highly sought after by both players and collectors. Bill passed away in March 2020. During his lifetime he won many awards for his cue designs and left a legacy with a body of work that few will ever come close to matching.