Mr. (Bill) Halliday, 85, a former vice president of Amway Corp., died Wednesday after a lengthy illness. He continued to practice law until last fall, said Murphy, his eldest daughter.
"He was a brilliant man, a brilliant lawyer," she recalled Wednesday from her home in Rochester Hills.
She said she and her siblings often had talks with their father about the law and about interesting cases he was working on.
Mr. Halliday was born in 1921 in Royal Oak. He graduated from the University of Michigan law school and remained a "very proud Wolverine" throughout his life, Murphy said.
He and his wife, Lois, met at college. The couple moved to Grand Rapids, Lois' hometown, after they married in 1947.
Mr. Halliday began his law career as a Kent County assistant prosecutor. After serving 17 months in the Korean War, he returned to Grand Rapids and was hired by the Smith, Schmidt and Howlett law firm as an associate. He later became a partner at the firm.
He took a job in 1966 with Amway, drawing up the company's articles of incorporation and working as a secretary and general counsel. He was appointed vice president of Amway Corp. in 1969, staying at the company until 1984.
Among his most famous cases was his defense of Amway against charges from the Canadian government that the company had evaded customs duties. Amway eventually pleaded guilty to the charges in 1983 and paid the Canadian government $38 million in fines in 1989.
Double Your Income with Network Marketing
Check out the new book by MLM Blog founder, Ty Tribble, published by the largest business book publisher in the world...coming May 1st.
Click Here To Pre-order The Book On Amazon.com Now
