While Davis' personal life is a long and challenging story some of it revealed in his recently published memoir, Where There's Smoke ..., he recently wedded the lovely Emmanuelle Herpin in France and is happier than he has ever been. While the couple will often be separated by oceans and continents - Emmanuelle is the Director of Finance for the City of Hyères on the south coast - they will find many ways to be together. Emmanuelle joined William for CSICON in New Orleans and later William will return to France during which time he will do a convention in Toulouse. 

Davis is terribly proud of his two children, Rebecca Davis, who runs the Rebecca Davis Dance Company in Philadelphia, now working in troubled countries like Bosnia, Rwanda, and Guinea, and Melinda Davis, who is completing a specialty in cardiology at Ann Arbor. He has one granddaughter, Amelia, and another on the way.

Long and gangley in his youth, Davis never felt coordinated unless he had a board or two attached to his feet. Skiing, whether on snow or water, has been a lifelong passion. Most other forms of exercise, including the infamous Grouse Grind are considered training for skiing. Still, he has been reluctant to 'retire' and devote himself full time to skiing as many of his skiing friends have. His artistic career is still alive and active.

Politically, Davis has always been left of centre, the degree of leftness varying with circumstance. For Davis climate change is the critical issue facing humankind. He is worried about the lack of political will to deal with the problem. Was Easter Island a trial balloon for mankind?

Davis has never believed in aliens or alien abductions. A graduate in philosophy he has ranged from agnostic to atheist. Much as people argue for the compatibity of religion and evolution, Davis suspects they are mutually exclusive.

Davis reads widely with a particular interest in evolutionary biology. A seminal book for him was The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins.