Bill Pelke was born in 1947 in Indiana. In 1985, Bill Pelkes grandmother Ruth Elizabeth Pelke, a 78 year old bible school teacher was brutally murdered in her home by a group of high school girls during a robbery. The leader of the group responsible, Paula Cooper (15), was arrested and was found guilty and sentenced to die. At first, Bill Pelke believed this to be a just punishment but later, owing to a realization that his grandmother would show mercy, began advocating for a retraction of Paula Coopers death sentence. In 1989, Paula Coopers sentence was changed from death to 60 years, owing to recent changes in federal and state laws which barred the death penalty for defendants who committed crimes under the age of 16.

Bill Pelke was very active in the death penalty abolition movement both locally and nationally. He was the President/Co-Founder of Journey of Hope From Violence to Healing, that began as a two-week event conducted by Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation (MVFR) in which speakers told the story of their loss and their resolution to oppose the death penalty. Journey of Hope conducted yearly events beginning in 1993 in Indiana, and followed by events in Georgia (1994), California (1995), and Virginia (1996). In 1997, Journey of Hope was spun-off from MVFR and became its own organization called Journey of HopeFrom Violence to Healing. The same year, Bill Pelke who was a member of both boards left MVFR. After its incorporation, Journey of HopeFrom Violence to Healing has organized full two-week events, as well as a number of smaller events, in states throughout the United States and overseas; Philippines (1998), Italy (1998), Europe (1998, 1999), Germany (2009), and Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya (2011).

In the last quarter of his life, Bill Pelke was a member in various capacities for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP), Murder Victims Families for Human Rights (MVFHR), Alaskans Against the Death Penalty (AADP), Abolitionist Action Committee (AAC), Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (CUADP), Indiana Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (Indiana CURE), Amnesty International, and Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation (MVFR).

Bill Pelke was a retired steelworker, a Vietnam veteran, and a college graduate with a BS degree in Pastoral Theology. He authored the book, Journey of Hope...from Violence to Healing, which details the murder of his grandmother Ruth Elizabeth Pelke. At the time of his death from a heart attack in November 2020 he lived in Alaska and was actively involved with the abolitionist movement.