Bob Byler

Bob Byler (June 28, 1930 – April 28, 2018) was a journalism professor and jazz journalist and archivist, known primarily for his long association as a writer and contributing editor for The Mississippi Rag and his extensive documentation of jazz performances taken with his wife Ruth Byler. Byler was a longtime professor at Bowling Green State University.

Biography Born on June 28, 1930, in Sycamore, Illinois, Robert Harris Byler Jr. became enamored with jazz at age 12 while listening to radio broadcasts of Stan Kenton. for nearly two years.

In 1965, Byler relocated to Evansville, Indiana, where he worked as a public information officer at Mead Johnson and continued his work with daily newspapers as a photographer and reporter. Through hundreds of hours of film, the Bylers documented rare performances, including footage of prolific rhythm guitarist and banjoist Danny Barker shortly before his death.

Two years after his wife Ruth died, Byler began publicly sharing the extensive footage on his Youtube channel, Bob and Ruth Byler Archival Jazz Videos. In addition to Youtube, some of his archives are housed at the Selby Public Library’s Sarasota Music Archive, Bowling Green State University Center for Archival Collections and the Marr Sound Archives at the University of Missouri–Kansas City.

Byler died in hospice care in his home in Venice, Florida, on April 28, 2018, of cancer.