John E. Bye, university archivist and director of the Institute for Regional Studies and University Archives, is scheduled to retire from NDSU on Nov. 4. He has worked at NDSU for 38 years.
Bye earned his bachelor’s degree from NDSU in 1970, as well as his commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. After leaving the military, he earned his master’s degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Bye joined the NDSU Libraries in August 1973 as an assistant serials librarian and instructor in library sciences. In 1979, he was appointed an Archivist I, and became the university archivist on Feb. 1, 1995. In November 2006, he took on the additional responsibilities and title of director of the Institute for Regional Studies.
Some of the projects Bye worked on most recently included the Cal Olson and Strand Studio photography collections, Allen Spiker’s German Russian Dialect Tapes and NDSU professor emeritus Timothy Kloberdanz’s folklore collection.