OLLI Shorts

🔥 Lottery: Aug 27–Sept 2 • Full registration: Aug 28
Dates: September 8, 2025
Meets: M from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM
 Location: Bozeman, MT - Museum of the Rockies
Cost:  $0.00

There are still openings remaining at this time.

Date Day Time
09/08/2025Monday3 PM to 5 PM

OR

Please note: This course program requires membership in a 2025-2026 OLLI at MSU Membership

Description

Eight OLLI members, eight stories, eight minutes. Join us for our fourth annual OLLI Shorts, featuring an eclectic array of presentations about various topics, including Arctic grayling, Jeanette Rankin, the Old Faithful Inn, Amelia Earhart and nature's inspiration.

Meet the Speakers

John Elwell

Even Your Dog Does Calculus

Calculus has a reputation for being hard, but we all solve calculus problems daily. This presentation will offer examples of how we all do calculus-even our dogs-as we navigate the physical world.

Ellen Payton

Jeannette Rankin: You Really Should Know More About Her

Jeannette Rankin was a Montana politician and women's rights advocate who served in the U.S. House of Representatives during both World Wars. She was the first woman in the world elected to a democratically controlled national body, and she remains the only woman from Montana elected to Congress.

Bill West

A Timeline of Arctic Grayling in Southwest Montana

Arctic grayling are extraordinarily beautiful freshwater fish first described in Montana by Meriwether Lewis. Once native to several parts of the United States, all aboriginal populations have disappeared in the lower 48 states except for two Montana rivers, where the species' range is the southernmost on the planet-and where it is on the brink of extinction.

Mary Sadowski

Something to Gain

In search of self-confidence, a month-long trek immersed in the Himalayas seemed like the perfect challenge for Mary to recoup and gain clarity about life's next steps. Despite inclement weather and unlikely circumstances, the results were life-changing.

Bruce Gourley

Historical Secrets of the Old Faithful Inn

Old Faithful Inn is the most famous lodge in the world. Constructed between 1903 and 1904, it is one of the largest log structures ever built. In this presentation, you will learn about a few of the Inn's lesser-known and intriguing historical secrets, giving you something to think about the next time you visit.

Lori Rosolowsky

The Making of My Musical

In Spring 2025, Lori Rosolowsky premiered her original musical, Fine Lines, at Verge Theater. Why did she write this deeply personal musical memoir? How did the story transform? Lori will take us on a short journey of the joys and challenges of taking original work from the page to the stage.

Marjorie Smith

Update on Amelia Earhart

The aviator Amelia Earhart disappeared 88 years ago. Yet even today, almost everyone knows who she was. Why do we still care? In her talk, Marjorie will summarize recent searches for Amelia's remains, or her plane, and consider some of the results of a century-plus of celebrity.

Rab Cummings

Montana Songlines: A Love Story

What happens when a young family explores Montana, creating stories, songs, and dances along the way? How do shared experiences help us to understand, appreciate, and navigate the landscape? Rab will share how the lessons found in Bruce Chatwin's travelogue The Songlines have created an opportunity for all of us to deepen our connections with both the land and one another.

Fee:  $0.00

Bozeman, MT - Museum of the Rockies

600 West Kagy Blvd
Bozeman, Montana 59717

Rab Cummings

Rab Cummings had an unconventional childhood as the son of an artist and an itinerant neuroscience professor. After graduating from university, he and his wife, Michele, spent a decade leading wilderness self-development courses from Mexico to Manitoba. Since then, Rab has channeled his insatiable curiosity into a professional career focused on teaching and educational coordination.

John Elwell

John Elwell spent his career designing weather satellites, where he often used calculus to solve problems. However, he believes calculus has a bad reputation and insists everyone, even your dog, can do some calculus. John has been a member of OLLI since 2016, and for many of those years, he served as chair of OLLI's Speaker Series Committee.

Bruce Gourley

Bruce Gourley is a historian, author, public speaker and editor of Church and State magazine. His most recent book is Historic Yellowstone National Park: The Stories Behind the World's First National Park. He is a frequent and in-demand OLLI instructor on topics such as presidential histories, Yellowstone history and civil discourse.

Ellen Payton

Listening to Ellen Payton speak, you might think she was from Southern Appalachia. But Ellen was born and raised in Bozeman. She picked up her surprising accent (surprising even to her!) at college at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. Ellen moved back to Bozeman in 2016 after spending many years as a software engineer and executive recruiter for a Fortune 500 company. She now bikes, hikes, skis and participates in all things OLLI for a rewarding and fun retirement.

Lori Rosolowsky

After a not-so-very-fun and extremely long slog studying pharmacology, Lori graduated as Dr. Lori Rosolowsky. She stopped using the "Dr." prefix when she left science for music in the 1990s. Lori is a pianist, singer-songwriter, educator, actor, and producer. She is also the founder and owner of Open Sky Artists, a consulting firm that champions people in creative fields.

Mary Sadowski

Mary Sadowski has had a variety of vocations, including outdoor guiding, working with raptors, photography, property management and real estate investment. She enjoys all things wild, traveling, writing and cherished relationships with family and friends.

Marjorie Smith

Marjorie Smith is a writer who grew up in Bozeman and is addicted to OLLI. She dedicated her first 40 years to having adventures in weird and wonderful places and the next 40 (or so) years to writing about those escapades. To finance her lifestyle, she has accumulated a long resume of jobs, ranging from a few weeks working in a San Francisco yogurt brokerage to eight years as a United States diplomat in Thailand and Japan.

Bill West

Bill West has managed U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska, North Dakota, Missouri and-for 31 years-Montana, 20 years at the National Bison Range, and 11 years at Red Rock Lakes. He has helped conserve multiple species, including trumpeter swans, grizzly bears, bison and Arctic grayling. Now, he leads the Friends of Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge and teaches an OLLI travel class in Montana's Centennial Valley.