William I. Bertsche

Who is William I. Bertsche?

William I. Bertsche was an American commercial translator. A speaker of English and German, he could sight-read Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, French, Finnish, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish and Swedish.

Bertsche was the son of Carl Bertsche and Hertha Woelfler. In 1903 his mother had founded the Lawyers' and Merchants' Translation Bureau at 11 Broadway, New York. His father was a charter member of the American Translators Association. William obtained degrees in English and Chemical Engineering from Columbia University and in Law from Fordham, being called to the New York bar. In 1944 and 1945 he served in the U.S. Counter-Intelligence Corps as a German translator and interpreter.

After the end of World War II, Bertsche joined the family business, and he became owner when his parents retired in 1966. He continued to run the bureau, one of the most prestigious translation agencies in the United States, until 1994.

Besides working as a technical translator and legal translator, Bertsche was also involved in translator training and professionalization.