John Edward Dye

John was a loving husband, father, and grandfather, who lived a full life of 86 years with passions for sports, statistics, technology, travel, and family. He was an intelligent, adventurous, witty, optimistic, and loyal man, who will be dearly missed and fondly remembered.

Born in Maryland and raised in Plymouth, IN, with four siblings, he came to love sports from an early age, especially basketball. His early life was spent covering local and national news at various newspapers before starting a career in accounting as a CPA for the Federal Government. While working in Chicago, he met his wife Donna, and would go on to have two children while crisscrossing the globe for work and pleasure. The Dye family eventually settled in Maryland where his two children, Derek and Natalie, gradually grew up.

It was in Maryland that his life changed markedly when Derek and Natalie both joined the high school track team at Middletown High School. As both started to excel more and more, John wanted to know how they compared to the competition. He ended combining his love of sports, statistics, and love of his kids to start the company that would become DyeStat.com. Initially founded as a regional newsletter for western Maryland, John quickly used his technical skills in the burgeoning Internet to start a website version of the newsletter and launched the website in 1996.

Due to a combination of journalist stories, rankings, and in person meet coverage, DyeStat quickly became the “go-to” web site for high school track in the United States. The power of the internet created a national community of athletes, coaches, parents and fans who met almost daily in the DyeStat club room – the TrackTalk message board. After Derek and Natalie graduated from high school, John’s wife, Donna, accompanied him to meets and started the hugely popular “Donna on the Side,” photo features of all the sideline scenes. In 2004, DyeStat assisted in launching the Nike Team Nationals cross country meet, the first true national team championship in U. S. high school sports.

In 2008, DyeStat was acquired by ESPN as part of the media giant’s venture in high school sports, RISE and ESPNHS. Although DyeStat continued to flourish, the other sports did not, and ESPN closed the high school division in September 2012. In 2013, Ross Krempley's RunnerSpace acquired DyeStat and continues to operate DyeState providing outstanding news and rankings of High School Track and Field and XC.

John would often compare himself to Colonel Sanders, the founder of KFC and a man he had interviewed while still a journalist. Like him, John founded a company late in life that would come to define many parts of him. John took great enjoyment watching athletes improve over the years he covered the sport and would take pride in seeing them continue into college, pro, and some even to the Olympics, often referring to them as "Dyestat Grads". In recognition of his contributions to High School Track and Field, John was inducted into the National High School Track and Field Hall of Fame in New York City in March 2018.

John eventually left the website, and lived a very happy retirement based in Las Vegas with Donna, making trips all over the world, visiting family, reading, following the games, drinking beer, and generally enjoying life.

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