Bill Macholdt was born and raised in Hunterdon County, NJ. He holds Master of Fine Arts degree from Bennington College in Vermont. Bill is currently an adjunct professor teaching ceramics in the Visual and Performing Arts Department at Raritan Valley Community College in Somerset County, NJ. He has taught at numerous institutions throughout New Jersey including Rutgers Mason Gross University and William Paterson University. He has shown his work nationally, and in galleries and museums throughout the New Jersey area. Bill currently resides in Raritan Borough, Somerset County, NJ.

Bill is the recipient of a New Jersey Council on the Arts 2021 Individual Artists Fellowship Award; he also received this award in 2009.