William Pachner (American b. 1915 in Czechoslovakia) has made his home in Woodstock since 1945. He studied art in Vienna and worked in Prague as an illustrator, before coming to the United States on the eve of World War II in 1939. In 1945, upon learning that all members of his family were killed by the Germans, he quit his job, and resolved never to do a commercial job again, but to paint what he felt.
Pachner has had numerous one-man exhibitions in New York City and Florida. His work is represented in many museums and private collections, including the Whitney Museum, The Florida Holocaust Museum, and the Tampa Museum of Fine Arts.