Born on March 21, 1941, in Kingston to William Steacy and Mary McLellan, he was baptized at St. Mary’s Cathedral on March 30, 1941 and confirmed at St. Barnaby’s church in Brewer’s Mills, ON in 1954 by the Archbishop of Kingston, the Most Rev. J.A. O’Sullivan. He first encountered the Redemptorists during a mission preached in Brewer’s Mills by Fr. Frederick Coghlan in 1954.

Fr. Steacy received his elementary education at Seeley’s Bay Continuational School. He then attended North Leeds High School for a year, before transferring to the Redemptorist minor seminary, St. Mary’s College in Brockville in 1955, graduating in 1959. In September 1959, he entered St. Gerard’s Novitiate at Keswick, ON under the guidance of Novice Master Fr. Cornelius McElligott. He made his first profession on August 22, 1960 at St. Gerard’s. He entered Holy Redeemer College in Windsor, ON in September 1960 for seminary studies, as well as enrolling in a B.A. program at the affiliated Assumption College (University of Windsor). Fr. Steacy was awarded his B.A. in 1963. In 1965, he moved to Mt. St. Joseph in Aylmer, Quebec to continue his theological studies.

He was ordained by the Most Rev. Joseph L. Wilhelm, Archbishop of Kingston at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Kingston, ON on June 4, 1967. He celebrated his first solemn Mass at St. Barnaby’s in Brewer’s Mills, ON on June 11, and was assisted by Rev. A.C.Hendrikx, Fr. Emmanuel Demerah and Deacon Howard Chabot of the Pembroke Diocese, a classmate from St. Mary’s.

His first appointment was to St. Patrick’s in Toronto in the summer of 1967 where he assisted with hospital chaplaincy. That same year he was appointed to St. Patrick’s in Quebec City, and assumed responsibility of St. Stephen’s parish in Sillery, Quebec (1967- 1970). Fr. Steacy then served as a high school chaplain at St. Patrick’s High School in Quebec City (1970-1975).

In 1974, Fr. Steacy was awarded his M.A.T. in Religion from St. Michael’s College in Winooski, Vermont.

Following his time in Quebec, he was assigned to Our Lady of Assumption, Toronto (1975 -1978) and was then moved to St. Alphonsus parish in Windsor, ON (1978- 1981). During these years Fr. Steacy also acted as reserve chaplain in the Canadian Armed Forces. He returned to Quebec with his appointment as pastor of St. Patrick’s church in Quebec City (1981-1985).

Fr. Steacy found his own unique ministry in prison chaplaincy, to which he devoted 18 years of service. He was the Chaplain at Millhaven Penitentiary (Canadian Correctional Services) from 1985 to 2003. This ministry included Millhaven Maximum Security, Joyceville Medium Security and occasionally the Kingston Penitentiary. Fr. Mark Miller, the previous Provincial of the Edmonton-Toronto Province, remarked upon this service at the celebration of Fr. Steacy’s 50th anniversary of ordination, “Bill has been a grace and a faithful pastor to many inmates and has come to share and understand something of what makes one a criminal and the quality of humanity found therein.”

Fr. Steacy himself remarked about his his prison ministry in an article published by Catholic New Times, May 28, 2000, “One of the images I like to use is Jesus the con. He was arrested, he was manhandled, he was beaten, he was thrown into prison, he was scourged, he was spat upon, despised and finally condemned. They are in a position to say ‘Jesus, fellow con’ that I cannot say and without hesitation I will say to them, so-and-so needs this, go to Jesus your fellow con.’ After all, he points out, ‘the first person to be assured of salvation was the con on the cross.’”

After completing his prison chaplaincy, Fr. Steacy stayed in the Kingston area, at the request of the Archbishop, to offer pastoral assistance throughout the Archdiocese of Kingston, mainly working an Administrator for the parish of St. Patrick, Railton and St. Mary’s, Odessa (2004-2022). In 2022, he retired to the Rosewood Retirement Residence in Kingston.

On Sunday, March 1, 2026, the wake was held at St. Patrick’s Church in Railton, Ontario. A funeral Mass followed on Monday, March 2, 2026, at 11 a.m. at the same church, with a reception afterward. Father Steacy was laid to rest at St. Barnaby Cemetery in Brewer’s Mills, Ontario.