William H. Paden was born in Muncie, Indiana on September 25, 1930. He attended Indiana University, and he studied painting with Alton Pickens, Jack Tworkov, and Leon Golub, and printmaking with Arthur Deshaies and Rudy Pozzatti.

Paden lived in Kyoto, Japan between the years 1963 and 1968. While there he studied the Japanese woodcut technique, working with Clifton Karhu. Azuma Gallery in Kyoto represented his work and mounted solo exhibitions in 1967 and 1968. Paden was a member of the Japan Print Association based in Tokyo. After leaving Japan, he taught briefly at Mt. Allison University In Canada, Princeton University in the Creative Arts Program, and at Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. He eventually settled in New York and taught at the New York University.

In 1968, Paden collaborated with the poet Clayton Eshleman to produce Brother Stones, a book illustrated with six vivid color woodcuts by Paden, published by A Caterpillar Book, Kyoto. His work was awarded a Drawing Prize from Ball State Teachers College, the Patton Studio Prize from the Indianapolis Art Museum, and an Achievement Award from the Japan Print Association. In 1974, Paden earned the Creative Artists Public Service Fellowship in New York.

William H. Paden died in New York on August 6, 2004. Two years later, Clayton Eshleman published A Shade of Paden, a memorial poem for his friend, Bill Paden