Alan Taylor is a Board member of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), using his five decades of expertise in marketing and public relations providing advice to help increase membership and awareness of OLLI and its lecture series in Boca Raton.  

Taylor, who was born in New York, but raised in Miami Beach and has lived in Boca Pointe for 29 years, credits OLLI  President Stephen Wertheimer for introducing he and his wife, Claire, to the OLLI lecture series in 2019.  “We just fell in love with the types of lecturers and the quality of the lecturers.  We became hooked,” says Taylor. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. 

Fortunately, two years later, audiences across the nation are now returning to movie theaters and other indoor venues that feature live music, theatre, sports and dance. Aided by “new OLLI management and a creative board” Taylor is confident that the Friedberg Auditorium will be packed as it was before the pandemic. “Things change, nothing ever stays the same,” he says. 

Taylor should know about change. Prior to moving back to South Florida, Taylor was the founder and creative force behind  the New York City-based, Alan Taylor Communications, one of the nation’s leading public relations firms specializing in sports and leisure marketing. Among his many accolades, Taylor  was named by the industry trade journal, PR Week, as one of the top 100 public relations executives of the 20^th Century.   During those years, he had many adventures, including handling public relations for many world championship boxing events, including 1964’s Clay- Liston fight, where a 22-year-old who would later be known as Muhammad Ali shocked the world by beating heavyweight champion Sonny Liston. His adventures as a publicist and newspaper sports writer are chronicled in his 2018 book, A Perfect Pair – Public Relations and Event Promotions.

After selling his company to his employees, he and his wife retired to Boca Pointe. Taylor eventually found himself serving  on the Board of Governors and chairman at the Club at Boca Pointe. Now in his mid 80s, Taylor, a University of Miami graduate, stays in shape by golfing three to four times a week and hitting the gym for weight training polished off by 30 minutes on the treadmill.

Taylor says that if OLLI had an unlimited speaker budget, he would love to bring in “former President Bill Clinton and former President Barack Obama.”