Donald "Don" Alvin Byrd

Bloomington Hospital after a three week-long battle with pneumonia.

Born September 4, 1946 in Chicago, Illinois, he was the son of Gene and Charlotte (Klein) Byrd.

He attended Mather High School and went on to study music composition at Indiana University,

graduating in 1968. He then received a PhD in computer science in 1984, with a dissertation on

music notation by computer. His advisor was Douglas Hofstadter, who became a lifelong friend.

Using his own music-notation program, one of the first of its kind, Don created the musical

examples for Hofstadter´s book, Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid. He had

numerous careers including software engineer, visiting research musician at Princeton

University, and GIS researcher, which brought him and his family to Massachusetts. He was

passionate about organizing and creating music with computers, and helped organize the

International Symposium on Music Information Retrieval there in 2000. He moved to

Bloomington with his family in 2001 and was involved with the Variations2 digital music library

project. He then served as senior scientist and visiting adjunct professor in the IU School of

Informatics. Later, he became a high school math teacher through the Woodrow Wilson

Fellowship in Indianapolis.

Don loved almost any form of physical activity and was an avid rock climber, mountaineer, and

hiker, having just returned from a two-week hiking trip in Iceland prior to his illness. He deeply

loved classical music and played flute and piano. He was also a composer. As a cancer survivor,

during his battle with multiple myeloma, one of his life goals was to complete a violin concerto.

His concerto was performed in Bloomington on September 24, 2017, conducted by his dear

friend Paul Nadler.

Don was the Indiana state coordinator for Braver Angels, an organization committed to

depolarizing American politics. In recent years, he also became passionate about advocating for

the regulation of artificial intelligence. He was an active member of the Bloomington Quaker

Meeting.

Above all, Don was a devoted and loving husband, father, grandfather, and friend. He was

preceded in death by his parents and brother David. He is survived by his cherished wife of 36

years, Susan Schneider, daughter Torrey (Mati) Sharaf, son Alec Byrd, two grandchildren, Lucie

and Benjamin Sharaf, brother Richard Byrd, and many loving nieces and nephews.

There are no words for how much he will be missed by his friends and family.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. at the Bloomington Friends Meeting

House.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be given to Braver Angels in Don’s memory.

Online condolences may be given at www.DayDeremiahFrye.com