Byron Gordon McKeeby, born on February 27, 1936 in Humboldt, Iowa. From a young age he was interested in art, and pursued that interest with great intensity, attaining degrees from Coe College, Art Institute of Chicago, Tulane University, and culminating in a notable Tamarind Teacher-Student Fellowship with Garo Antresian in the summer of 1965. Shortly thereafter he joined the University of Tennessee as Professor of Printmaking.

McKeeby exhibited his prints widely across the country. Known to his students as a hard taskmaster but acclaimed for his talent, he produced a prodigious amount of work. Expecting his life to be shortened by early-onset acute diabetes, he trimmed his activities to those things important to him: his art, his family and his students. He worked in all print media but was particularly attracted to stone lithography, almost a lost art, and he did much to revive it during his lifetime. He died suddenly in November 1984 in Knoxville, at the age of 48. He left a wife and two sons.