Insurance executive and Wisconsin Republican Party leader William M. Kraus was born in Marshfield, Wisconsin, on March 5, 1926. He received a liberal arts degree from the University of Minnesota in 1946 and graduated from the University of Wisconsin law school in 1949, although he apparently never practiced. Kraus was associated with Sentry Insurance of Stevens Point, Wisconsin, for almost 30 years. At the time of his resignation in 1978 he held the title of vice-president.
Kraus was very active in Republican politics in Wisconsin. In 1966 and 1968 he was state chairman of the Knowles for Governor reelection campaigns. In 1978 he was an early supporter of gubernatorial candidate Lee S. Dreyfus, Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Kraus managed Dreyfus' upset victory in the Republican primary over Robert Kasten and then spearheaded Dreyfus' victory over Acting Governor Martin Schreiber in the general election.
During the Dreyfus administration Kraus served as press secretary and was regarded by many as one of the most powerful members of state government. Because of his personal outspokenness and his liberal Republican views Kraus was also often the center of political controversy. In 1982 Dreyfus appointed Kraus as Director of the Department of Development. Following Dreyfus' decision not to seek a second term Kraus published Let the People Decide, an account of the 1978 campaign. During 1983 he worked briefly as a political columnist for Madison's Capital Times before accepting a position as vice-president for public relations, advertising, and corporate and political communications for the Equitable Life Assurance Society of New York City.
