Mourning the loss of Rita Herzog, major contributor in CNVC’s historyJanuary 17, 2025 Hi everyone, With sadness in our hearts, we are sharing the recent death of Rita Herzog 5, one of the most influential and significant people in the history of the Center for Nonviolent Communication. Rita recently passed away in her hometown of Cleveland, Ohio (United States).
We mourn the loss of Rita, an early leader of CNVC who ran the organization literally from her dining room table in the 1980s and 1990s, all before the existence of the internet and without the type of support and resources that exist today. As a longtime Certified Trainer – even before such a title existed! – she offered NVC training in Japan, Brazil, Mexico, many parts of Europe, and throughout the U.S. One of Rita’s biggest projects with lasting influence was developing the trainer certification program for CNVC – she served as the Certification Coordinator for many years, as well as an early Assessor. Rita met Marshall Rosenberg at a conference in Chicago where he gave a presentation, and immediately saw the huge potential of Nonviolent Communication, and dedicated herself to helping him build an organization that would share the work more widely. Rita held a master’s degree in teaching, and has worked as the teacher/ coordinator of an independent school, a daycare director, a college instructor, and as visiting faculty at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland. In addition, she parented and raised four children. We are grateful to Rita for many years of blood, sweat, and tears and the heavy lifting to get the organization off the ground. Her relationship with Marshall, and constant support of the work, was pivotal including the constant leadership that she provided including developing and managing our Certification process Please comment below if you would like to share how you feel hearing this news, as well as memories you would like to share about Rita. The Center for Nonviolent Communication is deeply grateful for everything that Rita contributed over the years, and we honor her and acknowledge what she contributed to the Nonviolent Communication movement. Soon, we plan to set up an online memorial for Rita with photos and other memories and we will let you know once we have done so. In addition, one or more online events are being planned where you can attend to mourn in community, share your memories, and learn more about Rita’s life and work. Meanwhile, here are a few photos to help us remember Rita.
Jeff Brown, |
