William M. Van Sickle received his early education in the country school near where he was born. When he was a mere lad he received a license to teach, and for a period of three months engaged in the profession. From this first school he entered the New Jersey State Normal School, and after finishing a course there he took a special course at Cooper Union, New York. He has taught school all along the line since he completed his studies at Cooper Union, teaching at the country cross-road, afterward at the rural village, then going to the town, and is now the Supervising Principal of Schools at West New York, where he has successfully filled the position the past eight years. These schools are now among the best in the country, and have a full complement of studies ranging from the kindergarten to the high school.

Aside from public school work Mr. Van Sickle has been more or less identified with the local interests of the several communities in which he has lived, holding at different times the offices of United States Census Enumerator, Town Clerk, County Committeeman, etc. He has also been connected with the press for a number of years, furnishing many special articles on the questions of the time.

He is also co-editor with Superintendent A. J. Demarest, of Hoboken, in writing the famous system of reading known as "The Synthetic Phonic Word Method of Teaching Reading," which will in time be universally adopted throughout the country. Mr. Van Sickle is now President of the Hudson County Teachers' Association, and he is also one of the members of the Hudson County Teachers' Examining Board.