We'll miss Jay Byers, who befriended all of central Iowa
The president of Simpson College and former CEO of the Greater Des Moines Partnership taught us to face the future with optimism, persistence, and compassion.
I feel like it’s a safe bet that nobody has published more social media posts and photos from more locations and events throughout the Des Moines metro than the late Jay Byers. So many of us have watched and marveled at the growth of our capital city and central Iowa through his eyes.
And now our community is in shock in the wake of Thursday’s sad news of his unexpected death at age 54.
My heart goes out first to Jay’s family. But this also was a guy who seemed to know everybody—and would quickly befriend the one or two people in the room he hadn’t met. With a height of 6 feet 6 inches, Jay literally stood out, whether he was circulating through a room of power brokers or towering over the other smiling faces in all those social media photos.
Since July 2023 he served as the president of his alma mater, Simpson College in Indianola. After many years on the Simpson board, Jay embraced the challenge to fully bring his business and political background into higher education and help overcome all the economic headwinds faced by private liberal arts schools.
Prior to that Jay spent 18½ years with the Greater Des Moines Partnership, including more than 11 years as president and CEO of an organization that now leads economic development for a dozen counties.
If there’s a public memorial for Jay, the event could be on the scale of Simpson’s football stadium or Wells Fargo Arena in downtown Des Moines. Day after day, he made so many new connections and friends.
Byers throughout the social media era, armed with fleet fingers on a smartphone, was our most positive, persistent, and public booster of central Iowa business and culture.
The man who essentially became the face and heart of our booming metro was a rural native. He grew up the grandson of farmers and son of teachers in Meridan and Manson in northwest Iowa.
After studying politics at Simpson and earning his law degree at the University of Iowa, he joined a firm in Indianapolis and then returned to central Iowa to work for Congressman Leonard Boswell.
A self-described workaholic, Byers also was a dedicated music “super fan” who began playing in cover bands in high school. Even as Simpson president he maintained his own Simon & Garfunkel tribute act, Homeward Bound, with friend David Pulliam. (The duo performed their namesake tune at Byers’ official inauguration in October 2024.)
Jay was a frequent presence in all varieties of music haunts. Last summer I joined Jay for a blaring Faster Pussycat concert at Lefty’s Live Music, when he was still recovering from the lingering effects of a nasty car accident he felt lucky to have survived. I now regret missing the chance to catch Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley with him in November at Val Air Ballroom.
In April 2020 during the initial throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jay on the Partnership’s own “Leading in Times of Challenge Podcast” was asked about his biggest challenges as a leader and how to boost team morale.
“I think during tough times that people look to leaders for reassurance, and they look to leaders for confidence and strength and resilience and being calm,” he said.
Jay also cited the need for compassion, because “different people handle different tough situations in different ways.”
Those words resonate all the more now that Jay’s vast network is grieving him and can’t imagine how we’ll fill his big shoes—or replace that familiar grin, often accentuated by a colorful bow tie.
I’ll leave you with words of advice from Jay. These are three top lessons of leadership he cited in that same podcast episode:
1. Communicate, communicate, communicate.
2. Don’t be constrained by the current rules. Innovation is the key in a crisis.
3. Be fearless. You’ve got to trust your gut, make tough calls, and move forward.
And here are six perfect words from Jay’s LinkedIn page: “Think big. Live large. Be nice.”
Jay, we’ll try to live up to the warmth, optimism, creativity, and conviction you modeled for all of us.
We’ll see you again some day for that final encore on the other side.
Home, where my music's playin'
Home, where my love lies waitin'
Silently for me
Iowa Writers’ Collaborative
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Chip Albright: Chip Happens
Rekha Basu: Shouts and Whispers
Kelsey Bigelow: There’s a Poem in That
Dartanyan L. Brown: My Integrated Life
Jane Burns: The Crossover
Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media
Ken Chester: TecMobility
Tej Dhawan: A cultural record of central Iowa’s technology
Randy Evans: Stray Thoughts
Christina Fernández-Morrow: Hola Iowa
Daniel P. Finney: Paragraph Stacker
Julie Gammack: Iowa Potluck
Dennis Goldford: Let’s Talk Politics
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Lynn Hicks: True Justice
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Rick Jost: Biz Whispers
Wini Moranville: Wini’s Food Stories
Kyle Munson: Kyle Munson’s Main Street
John Naughton: My Life in Color
Jane Nguyen: The Asian Iowan
Dave Price: Dave Price’s Perspective
Maxwell Schaeffer: Maxwell’s Voice
Macey Shofroth: The Midwest Creative
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Christie Vilsack: Common Ground
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Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County
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Arnold Garson: Second Thoughts, Okoboji
Darcy Maulsby: Keepin’ It Rural, Calhoun County
Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson
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Joan Zwagerman: Nuts and Bolts, Storm Lake
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Daniel Henderson: Things We Don’t Talk About, Like Religion, Washington
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Michael Judge: The First Person, Iowa City
Alison McGaughey: Out Here n the Fields, Davenport
Carol Montag: Monday’s Music, Cedar Rapids
Jeff Morrison: Between Two Rivers, Cedar Rapids
Zachary Oren Smith: Cornhole Champions, Iowa City
Ty Rushing: Ty’s Take, Iowa City
Steve Semken: Ice Cube Press, LLC, North Liberty
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona
Mary Swander: Emerging Voices, Kalona
Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport
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Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County
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Vicki Minor: Relatively Minor, Winterset
Sarah Scull: The Piecemaker, Creston
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Out of state
Romen Borsellino: Romen Borsellino, Hollywood, CA
Peter Hedges: Peter Hedges
Phoebe Wall Howard: Shifting Gears, Detroit, MI
Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.
Chris Gloninger: Weathering Climate Change, U.S.
Lovely tribute to a remarkable leader and friend. We are all reeling.