I was thinking of Bill this morning, because as it happened, I needed to use “hip-hop” in something. And if you were to ask me to describe William O. Goggins, I’d tell you he was a person who could and in fact did get worked up over whether or not hip-hop should be hyphenated. And why you couldn’t make “bebop” one word, because if you did that, you’d be left with hiphop, which would sound like “hifop,” and well, you see.
That to me, was the essence of Bill. Lively, whipsmart, argumentative, idiocyncratic, droll.
He was my one of my first editors, early in my career, at SF Weekly and Wired. He was also my friend, and if I’m in any measure a better writer or a better person than the snarkly fledgling smartass I was then, it’s in no small part to his influence. Stellar editors are a rarity, ones who are also exceptional human beings even moreso. I’ll always be honored to have known him.
— Mary Elizabeth Williams