William McGill Obituary

William "Bill" B. McGill Jr.

Hilton Head - William "Bill" B. McGill, Jr., 87, of Hilton Head, South Carolina, passed away on Wednesday, December 10, 2025.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, December 20, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. at Dunbar Funeral Home, 3926 Devine Street, Columbia, South Carolina 29205. The family will receive friends at a reception immediately following the service. A celebration of life will be held in Hilton Head, South Carolina, at a date to be announced.

Bill was born in Columbia in a home in beautiful Elmwood Park in 1938 to Eula Allen McGill and William B. McGill, Sr.

Bill graduated from Columbia High in 1956 and then received a BS degree from the University of South Carolina, followed by an MBA as a member of the first Moore School MBA graduating class.

Fresh with an MBA, Bill was hired by the South Carolina State Development Board (now the South Carolina Department of Commerce). After being promoted to director of research and planning for that agency, he left to co-found Vismor, McGill and Bell in 1972, an economic development, market research, and real estate planning firm. They completed hundreds of growth plans for small to medium municipalities throughout the Southeast during his tenure there. Although Bill resigned as a partner in 1983, he never forgot his market research "roots" and continued to author and co-author over 1,000 such studies in his lifetime.

In the same year, he was selected as president of Development Properties Inc. in Columbia, a GMK Associates firm. They developed the largest and tallest office building in the state of South Carolina on the corner of Main and Gervais, as well as the Summerall Building in downtown Charleston, the Hawthorne Suites hotel on Market Street in the same city, and other properties throughout the Southeast.

Ten years later, Bill joined the brokerage firm of Eden's & Avant and later opened the Hilton Head office, a co-venture with International Paper Realty as the primary client. After five years, at the age of 60, Bill, along with Larry Hiechel and Jack Maloney, purchased the office and formed Seaboard Commercial Properties, where Bill, who was the Broker in Charge, remained until 2022.

In 2005, Bill and Seaboard became the co-broker for the 4,400-acre planned unit development in Charleston known as Cane Bay Plantation. They were also responsible for bringing Sun City Charleston to that development.

While in Columbia, Bill was active in the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce, the Committee of 100, the South Carolina Tourism Council, and was a lifetime member of the South Carolina Economic Developers Association. He served on the state agency responsible for tourism-the Division of Parks, Recreation & Tourism, and on the board of directors of GMK Associates, and as Chairman of the Sandhills Academy Board of Directors.

In addition to his professional activities, Bill was an adjunct Professor of Marketing at the University of South Carolina and an Economic Development Professor at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.

Bill was an extraordinary husband, father, stepfather, grandfather, and friend. He will be lovingly remembered for his unwavering loyalty, his passion for history and nature, and his legendary sense of humor. One of his favorite sayings was, "You can pretend to be serious, but you can't pretend to be witty"-and Bill's remarkable wit never failed to shine through, whether in business or pleasure. He touched countless lives and will be deeply missed. There was simply no one else like him.

Bill is survived by his wife of 43 years, Alice Price McGill, PhD; his son, Michael William McGill; his daughter, Melissa Rochelle McGill; his stepdaughter, Adrienne Woodside Logel, and her husband, Tobin (Toby) M. Logel; and grandchildren, Kailyn (Kiki) Price Woodside Logel, Eliza (Ellie) McGill Woodside Logel, and Martha (Mattie) Carvin Woodside Logel.

He is also survived by his only sibling, Joan Marie McGill Munn, and her husband, Ben Frank Munn; his doting niece, Paige Munn Haas, and her husband, Kurt; and Paige's children, William Bennett Tarr and Cecilia (Ceci) Marie Haas.

We invite you to share a memory and sign our guest book.