William Turner was one of the original founders of the national task force which was established in 1968 to address the need for recognition and documentation of non-credit education courses and programs for practicing professionals and other adult learners throughout the U.S. Serving as the only chair, he led the task force in the creation, implementation, and development of guidelines for the Continuing Education Unit (CEU). As a result of this work, thousands of organizations and institutions have enabled millions of adult learners to document and be recognized for their non-credit continuing education learning. In the 27 years since its founding, the CEU has become the most commonly used "currency" for continuing education. He also established the Council on the Continuing Education Unit to monitor the use of the CEU and to promote quality for the field of continuing education and training through sponsored research.
Over a period of 30 years of administrative service for adult learners at North Carolina State University, from which he retired in 1990 as Vice Chancellor, Emeritus and Professor of Economics, Emeritus, he evolved a model organization for the modern land-grant university and created the first university-based development office for continuing education.
Executive Director of the Hall of Fame