Rod Zumbro, an OLLI member since 1993, created OLLI E-News, our Institute's new weekly email newsletter with photos, color and clickable links, in 2005; the first issue was published in July 2005. He edited OLLI E-News every week for the next eight years until he retired as editor in July 2013.
Two years earlier, in 2003 Rod volunteered to take over as OLLI’s second webmaster. He completely redesigned our website, added much new content, and started the now-common practice of posting each term’s catalog online as soon as it is sent to the printer (usually weeks before members receive printed catalogs via postal mail). Rod subsequently left the webmaster job, turning it over to the backup webmaster, but for more than 15 years Rod has continued to help maintain the website as part of the OLLI website team. In 2005 he again redesigned the website, this time with drop-down menus, providing better navigation and other improvements.
In 2004, he created the original 13-minute "Story of OLLI" movie and put it on DVD, videotape and the web so
prospective members could easily learn about OLLI. In 2011, Rod updated the "Story of OLLI" to include some newer clips and reduced its length to a more-watchable time, less than eight minutes. He has created many other short, OLLI-related videos, including reflections of almost all OLLI former presidents, and posted these videos for easy, one-click access on the Videos page of our website.
He has instructed at OLLI and served on the E-News Committee.
Rod and his wife, OLLI member Susanne Zumbro, live in Springfield and enjoy art and music events,
visiting their 12 grandchildren, and occasional travel. Rod is a retired Navy Supply Corps captain whose last position was commanding officer of the 90-person Navy central procurement office for large computer systems.
Rod is an enthusiastic supporter of our wonderful Institute. He served as a Board member for two three-year terms, from June 2006 until June 2012. To stay current with OLLI happenings so he could better do his jobs of webmaster and then enews editor, Rod attended almost every Board meeting for many years. He has always had a strong interest in transparency of OLLI governance actions and in keeping the membership fully informed on a timely basis.
Related web links:
- First issue of OLLI E-News (July 31, 2005), viewable as a web page at this TinyURL link, http://tinyurl.com/yal9eeuh, or as a PDF document at OLLI E-News issue one of July 31 2005
- Last issue of Rod's OLLI E-News (July 19, 2013), viewable as a condensed PDF document at printenews29-13
- "Story of OLLI" movie
- Rod's YouTube channel (most videos are OLLI-related)