College of Lake County

Bill Devore
Lake County High Schools Sports Hall of Fame Inductee - 2024

A 1966 graduate of Waukegan Township H.S., Bill was a versatile all-around student/athlete, who was a key member of the Bulldogs' 1966 Regional Championship baseball team and active in student government, serving as President of the Class Council and the National Thespian Society.

He graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1970, where he lettered in baseball, basketball and tennis and was President of both his sophomore and senior classes. He was one of the few athletes in IWU hisotry to letter in 2 sports in the same season, when in the spring on 1969, he compiled a 15-3 record at #3 singles in tennis and hit .330 for the Titans' CCIW championship baseball team. In his senior year, Bill decided to concentrate on baseball only and helped lead the Titans to another CCIW title, hitting .385, while tying for the league lead in home runs and finishing 2nd in RBI's. After his senior season, he was inducted into IWU's Hall of Fame, the "Order of the Titans."

Upon his graduation from Illinois Wesleyan, he received a fellowship to attend graduate school at the University of Illinois, where he received an M.A. in Speech Education. In the fall of 1971, he began a 7-year teaching and coaching career at Waukegan East High School, where he taught speech and communications and coached speech, baseball, basketball and golf. Also, he worked as a sportscaster for WEFA Radio, served 8 years as a player-coach of Waukegan's Shoreline baseball team, where he was a 3-time team MVP, 9-time all-star selection and League President and played 3 years for the Kenosha Pirates semi-pro baseball squad, leading the team in hits, batting average and runs scored all 3 years.

In 1978, he joined WKRS Rasio as Sports Directos and Sales Associate. While there, he was priviledged to cover the Colt World Series in LaFayette, IN (1979) and the AMerican Legion Illinois State Baseball Championship in Champaign and the Great Lakes Regional in Kokomo, IN (1980). After a 10-year stint with the Bank of Waukegan, where he was Vice President of Marketing and Public Relations, and a 5-year associateion with Victory Memorial Hospital, where he served as Director of Victory Hospital Foundation, Bill became the Executive Director of the College of Lake County Foundation in 1996. He has served on the Keith Ryan Scholarship Fund Committee since its inception, MC'd all of the Ryan banquets and was instrumental in initiating and founding the Lake County High Schools Sports Hall of Fame. He is currently the Chair of the Waukegan Sports Hall of Fame Committee.

Bill is a Past President of the Lake County Family YMCA Board of Directors and the Zion-Benton Township H.S. Board of Education. He has also served as a Benton Township Trustee and Clerk. He and his wife, Jan, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this past Decemeber and reside in Wadsowrth. They are the proud parents of Christopher (Scottsdale, AZ) and Angela (Gurnee). Bill and Jan have been active members of Immanuel Church in Gurnee for 44 years, where they currently serve on the Welcome Team and lead a weekly community/life group.