Ingrid Nystrom Archaeology Endowment

The Department of Archaeology is deeply saddened by the recent passing of Ingrid Nystrom, an essential member of the Department and the SFU community between 1974 and 1992. Ingrid left us at the age of 92, longevity, as she would state, resulting from her Swedish genes. For those of us who knew Ingrid, she was a beacon of light on top of the mountain, a person who made everyone’s day a little bit brighter. Her office door was always open; her visitor’s chair continually full. Ingrid Nystrom made a difference.

Ingrid joined the department in 1974 as its front office secretary, with elevation to Department Administrator not long after. Her official role was to manage budgets, supervise office staff, establish course schedules, hire teaching assistants and advise undergraduate students among numerous other tasks. She accomplished this superbly without the presence of a centralized computing system, or even a personal computer until the early 1980s. Ingrid was far more than an effective manager however.  At times she was the wizard who could fix almost anything, and a friend to all who crossed her path. She magically transformed research accounts that substantially had gone awry. Out of nowhere, it seemed, she could find money or a research assistantship for a struggling and destitute graduate student who was on the verge of dropping out. And for the many hundreds of undergraduate students who passed through the department over her 18 years, she was a dedicated advocate, one guiding their program, but a sympathetic counsel for the difficulties they might face. She was the caretaker of us all in virtually every respect. Archaeology was a young and energetic department in 1974; Ingrid Nystrom became the glue that held it together. 

Ingrid retired in 1991, a casualty of the university’s mandatory retirement policy. The department fought hard and was successful in retaining her for at least one more year on a post-retirement contract. It was a temporary position she was to be offered again in Resource and Environmental Management and then elsewhere across campus. Her ultimate retirement from SFU, in fact, did not come about until she was well into her 70s.

At 2 PM, October 27th, a Celebration of Life will be held for Ingrid in the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Simon Fraser University. Ingrid’s family and the department invite you to attend. In advance of that event, and even if you are unable to join us, we ask you to write your memories of Ingrid into an email, and send them to the department as we compile our tribute to a remarkable individual. Emails can be addressed to goarch@sfu.ca.