Bill Ivey, who helped cement the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s status as a Nashville landmark during his 25-year tenure as CEO, died Friday, Nov. 7. He was 81 years old.
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The institution memorialized Ivey in a social media post on Tuesday, Nov. 11. “Through his leadership, the Museum grew from a modest tourist attraction into the premier center for the preservation and study of country music past and present,” it read.
Bill Ivey, the Museum’s CEO from 1971 through 1997, died on November 7 at age eighty-one. Through his leadership, the Museum grew from a modest tourist attraction into the premier center for the preservation and study of country music past and present. Watch a 2023 Museum program… pic.twitter.com/EUMdJBAueZ
— Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum (@countrymusichof) November 11, 2025
Bill Ivey Dedicated His Life to the Arts
Born Sept. 6, 1944, in Detroit, Bill Ivey grew up in Calumet, a small mining village on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. After obtaining his bachelor’s degree in American history from the University of Michigan, he went on to earn his master’s degree in folklore and ethnomusicology from Indiana University Bloomington in 1970. Ivey became a Ph.D. candidate in folklore and history at the same institution the next year.
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That same year, in 1971, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum hired Ivey as its librarian. Within months, he was promoted to full-time director of the Country Music Foundation, which oversees the museum. Ivey would serve in that role through 1999, steadily building the museum’s staff and collections. During his reign, the museum gained national accreditation and saw its budget increase fourfold, with its staff and programs grew accordingly, according to a Facebook tribute from the institution.
In December 1997, President Bill Clinton tapped Ivey as the chair of the National Endowment for the Arts. After four years in that role, Ivey founded the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University. He served on the faculty there from 2002 to 2012.
Additionally, Ivey spent two non-consecutive terms as chairman of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, along with a stint as president of the American Folklore Society.
Ivey leaves behind an “incalculable” impact on the museum and the wider arts world, according to the institution.
Featured image by Beth Gwinn/Getty Images
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