Painter, sculptor, and printmaker William Ross Abrams was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1920. He attended the Cape School of Art in Providence, Rhode Island from 1938 to 1940, and then enrolled in the Richmond Professional Institute, where he received his BFA in 1941. With the onset of World War II he enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving between 1942 and 1945 and earning the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and more. 

Upon his return to the U.S. he studied at the Art Students League in New York with Sternberg, Kantor, Vuytlacil, and Barnet. In 1950 he was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship for 1951-'52. He then attended the Hans Hoffman School and studied with Robert Blackburn at the Creative Graphic Workshop. In the late 1950s he moved to Mallorca, Spain, where he lived with his wife, artist Mary Tatum, and their three children until his death in 2007. 

Abrams' work can be found in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Virginia Musem of Fine Art, Maryland; and the Seattle Museum of Art, Washington.