All Osher memberships give you access to fun activities outside the classroom! The Osher staff will email throughout the semester with instructions and details on how you can take part.
You’re invited to attend Osher@Mizzou’s Engaging in Aging Workshop and Resource Fair on Saturday, August 16, 2025, from 12:45 to 3:30 p.m. at Poehlmann Education Center at MU’s Bradford Research Farm, 4968 S. Rangeline Rd., in Columbia, Mo.
Join us for an educational event that emphasizes healthy, meaningful aging in mid-Missouri. A resource fair will feature organizations that focus on the senior lifestyle. Please see the full schedule of speakers below.
This event is FREE and open to the public. Please let us know you are coming using this form or emailing osher@mizzou.edu or calling (573) 882-8189. We look forward to seeing you there!
Schedule
- Noon Doors open.
- 12:45 – 1:00 p.m. Welcome from the Osher staff and volunteer committees.
- 1:05 – 1:35 p.m. Healthy Aging and Hearing Loss by Dr. Lisa Guillory, audiologist for Missouri Ear, Nose and Throat Center.
- 1:40 – 2:10 p.m. Must Love Dogs: The Human/Animal Bond by Dr. Carolyn Henry, MU College of Veterinary Medicine.
- 2:15 – 2:45 p.m. Keep Your Keys presented by the the Aging Best team on behalf of MU Health Care’s Injury Prevention and Outreach program.
- Resource Fair continues until 3:30 p.m.
Exhibitors in the Resource Fair
Access Arts
Aging Best
Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture
CoMo Preservation
Daniel Boone Regional Library
Maples Repertory Theatre
Missouri SHIP
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Mid Missouri
The Missouri Symphony
United Way
University Concert Series
University of Missouri – NextGen
What is Osher@Mizzou?
Established in 2001, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Missouri (Osher@Mizzou) plays an important role in our community by offering non-credit, affordable courses in exciting and relevant academic topics for mid-Missourians aged 50 plus, all for the joy of learning. This year, more than 550 members attended more than 100 classes, lectures, events and social gatherings.
Details for the 2025 event will be added soon.
The Robert G. Silvers Memorial Seminar Series:
Celebrating the Best of the Human Mind
Friday, March 22, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. in Moss A
Furniture Yesterday and Today—Observations from a Celebrated Woodworker
Open to all current Osher members and other guests, by invitation
After a four-year break, we are pleased to announce the return of the Robert G. Silvers Memorial Seminar Series: Celebrating the Best of the Human Mind.
Sally Silvers created and endowed this series to commemorate her husband Robert Silvers’ wondrous intelligence and humanity. After setting records for the number of Osher courses in which he enrolled each semester, Robert assumed the role of instructor. He was teaching an Osher course in woodworking in 2008 when he took ill. So overwhelming was Robert’s passion for the beauty of wood and opulent wood veneers, Sally’s choice of speaker for the series is the woodworking artist Ian Kirby, her husband’s inspiration and mentor.
Join Sally Silvers’ family, friends and acquaintances to celebrate Robert Silvers, one of Osher’s finest, most caring instructors who was totally committed to his students and the Osher program.
Instructor: Ian Kirby’s foundations in solid-wood furniture making were laid in England in the 1950s, in workshops where Edward Barnsley was the guiding light. Kirby has a national diploma in design from Leeds College of Art and completed advanced courses at the prestigious London School of Furniture.
Kirby first came to the U.S. in 1973 on a sabbatical from his teaching post at Middlesex University to teach design in the California State University system. He then served as a visiting professor at The School for American Craftsmen at Rochester Institute of Technology. In 1976, Kirby emigrated and opened his school of furniture making and design. It was during summer classes at Kirby Studios that he met Robert. Soon afterwards, Robert and Sally invited him to design their new home.
Since closing the school in 1987, Kirby has been involved in commission work on interiors and furniture, writing articles and books and traveling to give seminars and lectures. Recently, Kirby ended all “outside” work to focus only on the design and creation of his own house and its furniture. The Robert G. Silvers Memorial Lecture is the only public function he commits to because of the depth of his relationship with the Silvers family.
“Because of how my Robert loved this program, I wanted to give a gift to him and to our community by creating an endowment establishing The Robert G. Silvers Seminar Series: Celebrating the Best of the Human Mind. Robert wanted to learn everything ... all of the time. This tribute series is a bequest to all who seek, as he did, to grow in knowledge and understanding.” –Sally Silvers