William L. Joyce

1942 - 2021

William L. Joyce
March 29, 1942 - June 6, 2021
Princeton Junction, New Jersey - William L. Joyce (Bill), of West Windsor, New Jersey, a retired archivist and research libraries administrator, died on June 6, 2021, from cancer. He was 79.
The funeral service will be held on Tuesday, June 29, 2021 at 11:00 am at the Church of St. David the King in West Windsor, New Jersey. Visitation will be held at the Chapel of the Church from 4:00 to 7:00 pm on Monday June 28, 2021.
Bill was born in Rockville Centre, Long Island on March 29, 1942 and grew up in Freeport, New York. A 1960 graduate of Freeport High School, he received a bachelor's degree in 1964 from Providence College, a master's degree in 1966 from St. John's University and a Ph.D. in 1974 from the University of Michigan.
Bill worked primarily as a rare books and special collections librarian, curator and administrator. He started his career as a manuscripts librarian at the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan. Beginning in 1972, he served as Curator of Manuscripts and later Education Officer at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts. After moving back to the New York area in 1981, Bill began as the Assistant Director for Rare Books and Manuscripts at the New York Public Library. He then became the Associate University Librarian for Rare Books and Special Collections at Princeton University in 1986. This was followed by his appointment as the Dorothy Foehr Huck Chair for Special Collections and Head, Special Collections at the Pennsylvania State University from 2000-2010.
Bill's most important public contribution was his service on the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board. The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 created the Assassination Records Review Board as an independent agency to re-examine for release any assassination-related records that federal agencies continued to regard as too sensitive to open to the public. President Clinton appointed Bill to the five member Board in 1993 and he was confirmed by the Senate in April 1994. The Board finished its work in September 1998, issued a final report and transferred all of its records to the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington.
During his retirement, Bill's commitment to scholarship and public education led him to create two charitable funds to support these goals. The first, is the John Higham Research Fellowship awarded annually by the Organization of American Historians. It supports graduate students writing doctoral dissertations in American history. The second charitable fund is the William L. and Carol B. Joyce Historical Collections and Labor Archives Program Endowment for the University Libraries at The Pennsylvania State University. Its purpose is to support and enhance the Historical Collections and Labor Archives of the Eberly Family Special Collections Library at Penn State University.
Bill is survived by his wife of 53 years, Carol Bertani Joyce, his daughter and her husband, Susan and Oliver Köster, his son, Michael Joyce, his grandchildren, Alexander, Charlotte and Marie-Louise, his sister-in-law Jacqui Joyce, his sisters and their spouses, Rosemary and David Spencer and Kathleen and Tom Sullivan as well as many cousins, nieces and nephews.
Any memorial donations may be given to William L. and Carol B. Joyce Historical Collections and Labor Archives Program Endowment for the University Libraries at The Pennsylvania State University. Memorial contributions may be made to this endowment at: The Pennsylvania State University, 510 Paterno Library, University Park, PA 16802. Please indicate the "William and Carol Joyce Endowment" in the memo line.