William Malcolm Drummond was born in Bristol, Québec, in 1897.

He was a distinguished and internationally respected Canadian economist. He was educated at Queen's University (B.A., 1923), the University of Toronto (M.A., 1924), the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques in Paris, and Harvard University (M.A., Ph.D.). As an economist, he lectured at the University of Alberta from 1924 to 1926 and at the University of Toronto from 1929 to 1937. He then became Professor and head of the department of agricultural economics at the Ontario Agricultural College at Guelph where he stayed for fifteen years. During World War II he served on various federal committees and boards before returning to O.A.C. In 1952, he resigned from this position to serve with the United Nations' economic mission in Korea. He served as a member of the Royal Commission on Agriculture in Newfoundland (1953), the Royal Commission on Canada's Economic Prospects (1955), and the Royal Commission on Price Spreads (1957). He was a Fellow of the Agricultural Institute of Canada and co-authored two books.

He died at home in 1965.