Roger Reinke was the manager of the Office of Telecommunications Applications within the National Telecommunications and Information Administration at its inception in 1978. He also Chaired the 911 Task Force, a group of ten Federal agency representatives whose goal was to encourage the establishment of a nationwide emergency number.
To this end, a national conference on 9-1-1, sponsored by NTIA, was held in Minneapolis in May of 1979. Two years later, Roger's vision became a reality, and NENA was born.
In 2011, the NENA Executive Board established the Founder's Award to recognize those individuals who have made significant contributions to the development of NENA from its earliest days to the present. That same year, the very first Founder’s Award was presented to Roger for being the visionary behind the creation of NENA.
Click here to read an additional remembrance of Roger and here to read an interview with him that ran in The Call after he won the Founders Award.National Emergency Number Association