A former McMinnville mayor and community builder, Dr. Norman W Rone brought vision and courage into powerful, productive union, friends and admirers say.
“He was an exceptional person with a scientific, inventive mind,” said Dr. Neil Schultz, a lifelong friend.
“He had an illustrious career” in his professional practice and in public service. “Norman was a special person. I loved him very much,” Schultz offered.
An example of Rone’s expansive vision fueled by personal acceptance of risk is the creation of a non-profit, community-focused radio service.
His commitment to that idea resulted in the licensing and establishment of McMinnville Public Radio 91.3-WCPI in 1997.
“There are precious few of these small-market public radio stations in America. McMinnville is blessed to have one of them, and that’s owing to Dr. Rone and a few others who joined him like the late I D Byars, WCPI’s founding engineer,” said Richard E Myers.
One of Rone’s longtime friends, Myers serves as WCPI’s second chief engineer, a volunteer position.
“Norman had worked in the commercial radio stations in McMinnville in his teenage years, but later on he saw the need for non-profit broadcasting that could give the everyday citizen an opportunity to be heard by a large audience. His idea was to promote a very active, ongoing discussion of different and often conflicting ideas in the public space.”
“He saw a need and an opportunity. Then he went to work on it,” Myers continued.
Rone’s interest in wireless communications began early in his teenaged years when he operated a low-power transmitter built for him by family friend the late I D Byars.
“He and friend from the Roundhouse Gang, Jimmy Jones, played records and read local newspaper stories from his family’s garage,” Schultz recalled. The signal reached neighbors who were excitedly awaiting the initial broadcasts from a legitimate, licensed broadcaster, WMMT.
“We started getting letters and postcards from listeners who thought we were the ‘real’ radio station,” Rone laughed during a WCPI interview recording last year.
The young pirate broadcaster thought he would enlarge the reception radius by hooking up to his mother’s backyard clothesline.
But that time, WMMT had debuted on the air and the popularity of local bootleg radio was declining in favor of the new, more powerful station.
When WBMC launched in 1955, Rone was at the control console and announcer’s mic, welcoming listeners on the inaugural broadcast day.
Rone served as McMinnville mayor in four consecutive, four-year terms starting with his first election in 1989. In addition to government office, he led the McMinnville Lions Club and The Rotary Club of McMinnville as president and made time to serve at the helm of the McMinnville-Warren County Chamber of Commerce.
In other volunteer civic involvements he was a director of the Warren County Industrial Board, the 911 Emergency Communications board and the McMinnville Zoning and Planning Commission.
In those official positions his work was mostly out of public sight but nonetheless important, and sometimes pivotal, in the economic and social progress of McMinnville and Warren County.
But in a more conspicuous role, Rone was a lifelong member of the McMinnville Silver and Gold Band, the oldest continuously function community musical ensemble in Tennessee.
“Dr. Rone was a true public servant. He always put our community above himself,” Jimmy Haley, a successor to Rone as McMinnville mayor, emphasized.
“A true Rotarian, Norman set the standards for governance at it highest levels. He never settled for less.
“His devotion to our city allowed his successors to excel in their duties as mayor,” Haley added. “We should all be grateful for the many year of leadership he devoted to the City of McMinnville. He will be sadly missed.”
Rone’s full obituary and funeral arrangements can be found on page 3A.
