INSTITUTE, W.Va. -- The building on West Virginia State University’s (WVSU) campus that houses the administrative offices of the university’s land-grant programs has been renamed in honor of long-time professor and administrator Dr. R. Charles Byers.
The WVSU Board of Governors approved the name change at a meeting in February. Formerly known as the ACEOP Building, it will now be named the Dr. R. Charles Byers Land-Grant Administration Building. A formal dedication ceremony will take place later this spring.
“Dr. Byers is such an important part of West Virginia State University’s history and this honor is fitting for someone who has done so much to support the growth and success of this institution and its students,” said WVSU Interim President Ericke Cage. “It is especially fitting for this building to be named in his honor, as Dr. Byers worked tirelessly for years to regain the university’s birthright as an 1890 land-grant institution. Today, through our land-grant mission, the university reaches all 55 counties of West Virginia and impacts thousands of lives.”
A 1968 graduate of WVSU, Byers served the university in a variety of capacities over a career that spanned more than 40 years.
Byers joined the WVSU faculty in 1972 and spent the next 17 years as an associate professor of teacher education. He served for 12 years as the Vice President for Planning and Advancement, Title III Director and Executive Director for the WVSU Research and Development Corporation before being named Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.
He had retired as Provost of the University in 2014 after 41 years of service at WVSU. He returned to WVSU as Interim Provost in July 2019, and later served from May through August 2020 as the University’s Interim President, becoming the first alumni of WVSU to serve in that capacity.
In 2015, Byers, an accomplished painter and sketch artist, published “A Place We Love So Dear: A Collection of Campus Drawings,” featuring pen and ink drawings of every building on the WVSU campus.
Byers is a 1968 graduate of WVSU with a bachelor’s degree in art education. He later earned a master’s of fine arts degree from The Ohio State University while working as a commercial artist and art teacher in Columbus, Ohio. Later, Byers earned a doctorate degree from Kent State University in higher education administration.
Byers is married to the former Edithe Rosebourgh of Charleston, a retired public school educator. They are the parents of three adult children, and five grandchildren.
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West Virginia State University is a public, land grant, historically black university, which has evolved into a fully accessible, racially integrated, and multi-generational institution, located in Institute, W.Va. As a “living laboratory of human relations,” the university is a community of students, staff, and faculty committed to academic growth, service, and preservation of the racial and cultural diversity of the institution. Its mission is to meet the higher education and economic development needs of the state and region through innovative teaching and applied research.