Class of: 1965
Deceased: 2004-04-12

From the obituary in Broward Sun Sentinel, April 14, 2004: HOLLYWOOD . Billy Larry Cypress, a Seminole tribal historian who directed the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum and spent a lifetime educating children and adults in the ways of Florida’s largest Indian tribe, died Monday. He was 61. Born at a Seminole camp at Royal Palm Hammock along the Tamiami Trail, Mr. Cypress became the first tribe member to graduate from college, receiving a bachelor’s degree in English from Stetson University. He received a master’s degree from Arizona State University. He also served in the U.S. Army as a combat platoon leader, rising to the rank of major. His love of the tribe, its culture and its members was evident in everything he did. He spent several years teaching the tribe’s Head Start program and worked 18 years in the education department at the Bureau of Indian Affairs. But it was his role as founder and director of the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum that Mr. Cypress most cherished. The museum, on 60 acres of the Big Cypress Reservation in the Everglades, boasts the largest collection of Seminole artifacts and is nationally recognized as a leader in American-Indian culture. Mr. Cypress’ prominence as a curator is reflected by national accolades, including his appointment to the board of directors of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., which is scheduled to open this year.

Mr. Cypress also was a member of the Vision Planning Committee for the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M. For the Seminole Tribe, Mr. Cypress was a member of the Gaming Commission as well as a member of the board of directors of the Hollywood Reservation and the First Seminole Baptist Church. He is survived by his wife, Carol; son, William Cypress of Hollywood; daughters, Sonya Cypress of Pembroke Pines and Carla Cypress of Hollywood; brother Jonah Cypress of Big Cypress; sisters Sally Buster, Louise Osceola and Esther Buster, all of Big Cypress, and Agnes Billie Motlow of Hollywood; and seven grandchildren.