Bruce Byland
 1950-2008


Bruce was born on March 17, 1950 to Opal Aleene Kinzy Byland and huband, Warren Thomas Byland, Jr. (1911-1977-1915-2010).  He passed away May 17, 2008, in Mamaroneck, Westchester County, NY, from head and neck cancer.  He was 58 years old.


Published by New York Times from May 18 to May 19, 2008
Byland -- Bruce E., 58, of Mamaroneck, NY on May 17,  2008 after a valiant struggle with cancer.  Beloved husband of Cara Tannenbaum for 27 years, loving father of Leah and Sophie.  Active scholar of Mesoamerican archeology, Professor of Anthropology at Lehman College, passionate advocate in the comminty ofor historic preservation. 
Sevices at 11am, Monday, May 19, Zion Memorial Chapel, 767 E. Boston Post Rd., Mamaroneck.  In lieu of flowers, a scholarship will be established in his name at Lehman College.  The family will be sitting Shiva at home through Wednesday evening.
Lehman College mourns the recent death of Professor Bruce Byland of the Department of Anthropology. He was a member of the faculty since 1984, teaching introduction to the subfield of archaeology, as well as courses on the archeology of South America, the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America. 

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Respected by his peers and beloved by his students, Professor Byland received the Excellence in Teaching Award last year. He often participated in the Freshman Year Initiative program, and was one of the first members of the faculty to participate in the Writing Across the Curriculum program. His contributions to the program included teaching other instructors at Lehman—as well as elsewhere—about the ways he used writing to teach theoretical concepts, with anthropology as the model. 

In 1999, he led an excavation of an eighteenth-century African burial ground that was uncovered in lower Manhattan. His popular advanced excavation class, "Field and Laboratory Research," often found him and his students at the Jay Heritage Center in Rye, where students experienced a hands-on approach to learning.

Off campus, Professor Byland was involved in a number of innovative teaching endeavors, including volunteer teaching at Bronx and Westchester middle schools and high schools about African-American history from colonial times to the Civil War. He also taught about evolution and archeological topics at Westchester public schools. In addition, he was one of two specialists teaching faculty and graduate students from the United States, Mexico, and other countries about Mixtec archaeology and ethnohistory at the annual Mixtec Gateway Conferences.

Services were held on May 19 at the Zion Memorial Chapel in Mamaroneck. The family plans to establish a scholarship at Lehman in Professor Byland's name.