Complex sentence: During his time at Stanford, John met William C. Stokoe--a pioneering figure in sign language research--the two were to work together editing the journal, "Sign Language Studies", for the following decades until Bill's death in 2000.
Split into simpler sentences: During his time at Stanford, John met William C. Stokoe, a pioneering figure in sign language research. The two were to work together editing the journal, "Sign Language Studies", for the following decades until Bill's death in 2000.