A professor of painting and design at Washington University from 1963 to 1996, William Roth has been a painter, muralist and printmaker as well at educator.

William Roth Kohn was an American artist born in 1931 in University City, Missouri. He received a BFA from Washington University in St. Louis in 1953 and later studied printmaking in Paris with Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17. After serving in the U.S. Army, Kohn studied Spanish in Mexico City before completing his MA at Mills College in Oakland, California, in 1960.

Kohn joined the faculty of the Washington University School of Art in 1963 and taught painting, drawing, and printmaking for thirty-three years, retiring in 1996 as professor emeritus. Although trained in printmaking, Kohn became best known for his large, colorful paintings depicting landscapes and architectural subjects drawn from his travels in Europe, India, Mexico, and the United States. He received a Fulbright-Hays Grant to India in 1965, and his work is represented in numerous public and private collections, including the Saint Louis Art Museum and the Springfield Art Museum in Missouri. Kohn was honored with the Missouri Arts Award in 2002.

Kohn continued to paint until his death in St. Louis in 2004.