Open Textbook Network

I’m terribly saddened to hear of Ron’s passing. Ron was at our first OTNSI [Open Textbook Network Summer Institute] and has been with us at every OTN Summit. I will miss his thoughtfulness.  Ron had a powerful commitment to bringing open to the faculty at Macalester in a way that was appropriate to their context. He was generous in sharing strategies that he found effective with his faculty and he connected the OTN with a number of other institutions who he thought would benefit from our community. I am sure the community at Macalester will miss him and I know that we will too.

Contributed by Sarah Faye Cohen, Managing Director, Open Textbook Network, Center for Open Education, University of Minnesota (from email with permission from Sarah)

To expound on my comments more, Ron and I were two of a smattering of people that had attended every Open Textbook Network Summit since the first one in 2015.  Ron was always my go-to guy to hangout with at the OTN Summit every year. We seemed to always end up at the same table. He was the friendly face I looked for, and we enjoyed discussing the different open education projects happening at Macalester and the U of M.  I was always impressed with how Ron had so much going on! He obviously had a passion for this work, and for making a difference to the students of Macalester. As I said, I will miss Ron a great deal.

Contributed by Shane Nackerud (email with permission from Shane)