Founder, owner, and publisher of Fawcett Publications from 1919 until his death in 1940. Founded Fawcett Comics in 1940.

Fawcett joined the U.S. Army at the age of 16 in 1902. He served two years and was wounded during the Philippine-American War that resulted in his return to the United States. In 1908, Fawcett became a clerk with the Railway Mail Service. He later joined the Minneapolis Journal as a police cub reporter. During the First World War, Fawcett re-enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1918 and served as a Captain working for the Star and Stripes newspaper. It was his time in the Army that he came to be known as Captain Billy and decided to become a publisher himself. In 1919, he created the humor and cartoon magazine Captain Billy's Whiz Bang.