The N’Namdi Center invites you to join us for a lecture by Ron Maurice Ollie on his life and journey as an art collector of Abstract Art by Black Artists.
Ollie, a native of St. Louis, Missouri, is a serious patron of the arts. Over his life, he has amassed a personal collection of abstract paintings and photographs by nationally and internationally acclaimed black artists. Currently his holdings include more than 200 objects. This collection is dedicated to the memory of his late parents, Mr. and Mrs. Bert and Thelma Ollie who resided in St. Louis, Missouri. Ron is also an avid book collector whose library includes over 2,100 titles on black history and culture as well as volumes of Negro Spiritual sheet music.
His community work and civic involvement have been natural outgrowths of his professional and artistic life. Ron has served as Vice Chair, East Orange, NJ Planning Board; Trustee, Bethany Baptist Church – Newark, NJ; Board Member, NAACP, Newark, NJ; Board Member, Regional Alliance – NY/NJ (consortium of majority engineering, architectural and construction firms whose mission is to increase the pool and capacity of minority firms); Board Member, James E. Lewis Museum, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD; Board Member and Chair of Development Committee of Harkhomes (a private homeless shelter for men); and Board Member and Chairperson of Development, East Fulton Street Local Development Corporation, Brooklyn, NY. Currently, Ron is a member of the Newark Museum’s Board of Trustees where he is a member of the Executive, Acquisition and Education Committees. He is also a member of the board of the Newark Arts Council.
Ron has a keen interest in architecture and the environmental justice movement. He has spoken publicly on environmental issues and policies as a former board member of INFORM, an environmental advocacy group located in New York City. In 2007, he was appointed commissioner of the Environmental Commission for the City of Newark with the goal of becoming the “greenest” city in the Garden State of NJ.
Ron Ollie is the Vice President Emeritus of Client Service Delivery at Optimatics, an engineering software start-up company. He has spent over 30 years in business development for major Fortune 500 firms and top architecture and engineering firms across the country, where he has enjoyed success in marketing and sales, new client cultivation, corporate forecasting and strategic planning, and has been rewarded with rapid promotions and increasing responsibilities. After graduating from the University of Missouri, School of Mines & Metallurgy (Rolla) with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering, Ron began his career as Resident Sales Engineer and Packaging Sales Rep with Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Since then, he has served in various leadership capacities at Rohm and Haas (Elmwood Park, NJ); ICF Kaiser Engineers (Oakland, CA); Fleming Corporation (NY/NJ); Jackson and Tull, Ltd (Washington, DC) and Metcalf & Eddy, (NY, NY). Ron’s proudest career moment was becoming a partner in 2000 at Malcolm Pirnie, Inc. (White Plains, NY), making him one of a very few African-American partners in a majority-owned consulting engineering firm.
Image: Ron Ollie stands next the the Herbert Gentry piece titled “Ceremony” that he and his wife Monique donated to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.