The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is mourning the loss of one of its most influential leaders. Bill Ivey — who served as CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum from 1971 to 1997 — died in Nashville on November 7. He was 81.
The museum announced the news in a detailed Facebook tribute, calling Ivey a “challenging thinker” whose impact on the institution and the arts world was “incalculable.”
25 Years of Transforming the Country Music Hall of Fame
Born in Detroit in 1944, Ivey earned a degree in history from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree in folklore and ethnomusicology from Indiana University. While working toward his Ph.D. in 1971, he applied for the director of the library job at the Country Music Foundation (CMF), then the nonprofit that oversaw the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
He was hired in August 1971 and quickly impressed the board. By fall of that year, he had been promoted to director of the CMF, beginning a 26-year tenure that reshaped the museum entirely…