Born March 12, 1918 in Chicago, Illinois, he was the son of John Hogan and Mary Loughnane. Ironically when Bill Hogan went to the Passionist Preparatory Seminary in Normandy, Missouri in 1931 he made this first Passionist profession prior to his novitiate. He had come down with spinal meningitis, and there was a fear that he might die. Through the assistance of Hogan’s cousin, Confrater Charles Guilfoyle, Hogan was allowed to profess his vows. Once he recovered the vows automatically expired and Bill Hogan went off to the novitiate at St. Paul, Kansas. He was professed on July 17, 1938. Studies continued at St. Paul of the Cross Monastery, Detroit, Michigan. After final vows in 1941 Hogan went to Immaculate Conception Monastery, Chicago for two years of theology and then to Sacred Heart Retreat in Louisville, Kentucky for the final two years. Father Hogan was ordained on April 26, 1944 in Louisville by Archbishop Floersch.
In 1946 Father Hogan was sent to Notre Dame University and obtained a Master’s Degree in English Literature. His dissertation, approved in 1949 was “Wordsworth and the Catholic Church.” Upon completion of the course he began his long career of teaching at the Passionist Preparatory Seminary in Normandy. Later Father Hogan went back to Notre Dame to study Religious Education. He then went on to work on the staff of several retreat houses in Holy Cross Province. Sisters respected his preaching ability. However, as time went on he was beset by physical problems. Eventually cancer entered his body. Father Hogan also served as an Assistant Superior and Econome at Immaculate Conception Retreat in Chicago. He died in Chicago on September 1, 1989.