William Macdougal Odom was born in Columbus, Georgia in 1884 or 1886. He attended the New York School of Art (later, Parsons The New School for Design) in approximately 1907-1908, where he became a protegé of Frank Alvah Parsons. Parsons was impressed by Odom's aptitude for scholarship and interior decoration and hired him to teach in the Interior Decoration Department. Odom was the founder and first director of the Paris Ateliers, the French branch of Parsons, in 1921. Following Frank Alvah Parsons' death in 1930, he became president of the school, in which capacity he served until his own death in January 1942. The name of the school officially changed to "Parsons School of Design" under Odom's presidency.

In addition to his role as school administrator, Odom researched and wrote the two-volume A History of Italian Furniture (1918-1919). For his decorative arts scholarship, he was decorated as a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor. Odom also acted as European agent for Eleanor McMillen Brown's interior decoration firm. He traveled extensively in Europe and had numerous social connections that facilitated the purchasing of fine furniture and objets d'art.