William Waterhouse sailed in the Star class at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, alongside Woody Metcalf. They represented the Richmond Yacht Club, although Waterhouse was also a member of the San Francisco Yacht Club. Waterhouse started in business as a foreman in a livestock department. He later moved to U Cal Berkeley where he worked as an assistant in the Agricultural Extension Department for over 40 years. He was joined there by Metcalf, who started at Berkeley in 1914 as a forestry professor but moved to the Agricultural Extension Department in 1926.