William Heck Pace was born on December 7, 1883, in Raleigh, North Carolina. Pace was an attorney in Raleigh when he registered for the draft (World War I) in June 1917. He entered the service in September 1918 with the rank of major and was assigned to the judge advocate general's department. He undertook this work at Camp Sevier, Camp Lee, and in Washington, D.C. He was honorably discharged on September 30, 1919. Pace died in Asheville (Buncombe County) on January 4, 1940.