Background
Purcell, Bill was born on October 25, 1953 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Son of William Paxson, Junior and Mary (Hamilton) Purcell.
Purcell, Bill was born on October 25, 1953 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Son of William Paxson, Junior and Mary (Hamilton) Purcell.
He attended Hamilton College in Clinton, New York where he served as Vice President of the Student Senate and was a columnist for the school newspaper. After graduating from Hamilton, Purcell attended law school at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
On June 24, 2008 he was named director of Harvard University"s Institute of Politics (IOP) at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Purcell assumed the post on September 1, 2008. He was one of three co-chairs of the Harvard University Allston Work Team.
He is now in private practice of law in Nashville and an adjunct professor of Public Policy at Vanderbilt University.
He is currently a Trustee at Saint Bonaventure University. He received his law degree in 1979 and began practicing at the West Tennessee Legal Services agency in Jackson, Tennessee.
In 1986, Purcell was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives where he served for five terms. As House Majority Leader and Chair of the Select Committee on Children and Youth, Purcell"s work in the legislature positioned him in the forefront of education, health care, workers compensation, and criminal sentencing reforms.
Purcell retired from the General Assembly in 1996 to became director of the Child and Family Policy Center at the Vanderbilt Institute of Public Policy Studies, a nationally-recognized center building a bridge between academic research, politics, and best practices to benefit children and their families.
Although many suspected that he would run for governor in 1998, Purcell instead announced that he would enter the race for Mayor of Metro Nashville after incumbent mayor Philosophy Bredesen opted not to run for a third term. In September 1999, Purcell took office as the fifth mayor of Metropolitan Nashville. Purcell was reelected to a second term in 2003 with a record-setting 84.8 percent of the vote.
Purcell is the second native Northerner to serve as mayor of Nashville (at least since the merger of Nashville and Davidson County in 1963).
The first was Bredesen. Purcell opted not to run for a third term because an amendment to the Metro Charter which limited city council members to two consecutive terms was worded in a way that it applied to mayors as well.
Although mayors have been limited to three consecutive terms since the formation of Metro Nashville in 1963, Purcell decided not to make an issue of it, and stepped down at the end of his term in 2007. In the fall of 2007 he served as a fellow at Harvard University"s Institute of Politics, and later as the Dean of the school of Public Service and Urban Affairs at Tennessee State University.
He was succeeded as mayor by Metro"s law director, Karl Dean.
With National League Cities, 2000—2002, chairman council youth, education and families, 2003. Chairman human services committee National Conference State Legislatures, Washington, 1993. Member executive committee Democratic National Committee, 1994—1997.
Executive committee 6th District Democrats, Nashville, 1986—1988. Member Tennessee State General Assembly, 1986—1996, majority leader, 1990—1996. Chairman Democratic Legislation Campaign Committee, 1994—1996.
Member of American Bar Association, Nashville Bar Association, Tennessee Bar Association.
Married Deborah Lee Miller, August 9, 1986. 1 child Jesse Miller.