William R. Pape '68

From 1982 to 1998 Will was a VeriFone co-founder, senior manager, and corporate officer until the company was sold to Hewlett Packard. VeriFone pioneered the electronic acquisition and transfer of credit card information and, at the time of the HP acquisition, handled over 65% of the world's daily credit card traffic. Will, one of the first five VeriFone employees, was responsible for company operations including the technical development groups, the product marketing groups, and the information, system, and controls groups. During this same period he had an active public speaking schedule on "the virtual corporation," a concept VeriFone pioneered. Will authored the quarterly Virtual Manager column for Inc Technology magazine for five years, served on the board of another NASDAQ NMS company, and was a lecturer at the National Defense University at Ft. McNair, Virginia.

Will’s family was an integral part of Casady. His mother was D.R. “Bee” Pape, a Montessori pioneer in the Southwest. She created the first Montessori teacher training program in the 1960s and taught at Casady School for 35 years. At the time of her death, Bee was the Director of Montessori Teacher Education Program at Oklahoma City University and was a 2011 finalist for the American Montessori Society Living Legend Award. Will’s sister, Sally Pape Hester, graduated from Casady in 1972.