Because of his own personal history of sight impairment, he established the Gift of Sight Foundation to facilitate matching grants funding to establish corneal eye banks; and serves as its Executive Director. Successful Gift of Sight projects have been sponsored since 1992 in Turkiye, India, Bangladesh & Philippines, and scores of additional projects presently are planned in dozens of countries. He has developed and is actively promoting and coordinating a Rotary-sponsored global model infrastructure for promoting and supporting cornea donation programmes in service clubs and is senior advisor to the GLOBAL re-VISION programme, an even more ambitious programme designed to meet the need of over two BILLION poor people in the world who suffer from refracive error - and who can have their sight impairment alleviated with a pair of eyeglasses!

Born and raised in San Francisco, California, USA, Mr. Ketron is an Eagle Scout and has 20 years experience as an adult volunteer youth and Scout leader. He first served on Eagle Scout Boards of Review and most recently was an inner-city Scout commissioner, believing that the Boy Scout programme is a most underutilized resource for the millions of single mothers trying to raise sons with a set of valuable eithical standards amd skills that will serve them as productive men in society.

Rob began his higher education by working his way through junior college, earning his A.A. at College of Marin. His education continued, still earning his own way by working full-time, at the Universities of Redlands (A.B. with a group major in economics, government and religion), California (Berkeley) and Arizona (Tucson) & Maryland (College Park) in Geography and Area Development; Before and during his doctoral studies at the University of Maryland, he taught university-level Geography, Sociology, Statistics & Urban Studies for several years at the Universities of Arizona, Toledo and District of Columbia and at Morgan State University as Assistant Professor of Sociology, Urban Studies & Social Statistics. His M.A. is in Geography & Area Development from Arizona. Early in his career, he also was a regional planner in Baltimore and Toledo.

Mr Ketron is a pioneer Certified Financial Planner (CFP); founding and directing the InterAct group of companies as investment syndicators & marketers, government secutities & commodities traders and as real estate developers. He came out of retirement to help advise health and wellness professionals in marketing to an increasingly misinformed public.

He also promotes holiday property use thru Computerdummy.com, and Caymanparadise.com
and domain registration services thru Computerdummy.net

Rob worked for Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) & Dr. Martin Luther King during the American Civil Rights movement in civil rights & voters' rights programs in the southern United States during the 1960s. He has been an activist in domestic anti-discrimination & international peace activities , he served as executive director of a community service organization in suburban Cleveland, Ohio. He has traveled to dozens of US cities for SCLC and National Neighbors prompting equal opportunity programs and fair housing practices in urban areas, and to over thirty countries on community service projects and good will missions with Rotary.

A convinced Quaker, Mr Ketron has been promoting peace and non-violence programmes and activities since his teenage years. His grandmother, Margaret Ann Meyer Henry, daughter of a 19th century San Francisco socialite, was a social acitivist who openly opposed the forced relocation of Japanese at the outset of World War II. The strength of her convictions was instilled in him by this towering personality who believed in the inherent worth of all people. Mr. Ketron has demonstrated thorughout his life that same deep-seated commitment to peaceful resolution of conflict and to promoting the satyagraha of Gandhiji:

A Rotarian since 1978, Mr. Ketron has served as a Rotary International Officer and has been a Rotary Foundation Coordinator for Foundation Grants and Scholarships. He is a Rotary Foundation Benefactor; he and his wife Ann Marie are major donors and, along with their daughters Alexa and Shana, are multiple Paul Harris Fellows of the Rotary Foundation. Their contributions originally focused on Rotary's Polio Plus signature global campaign to eradicate this crippling disease throughout the world. Mr Ketron initiated and directed the organization of the meeting between Rotary International President Clifford Dochterman and US President Bill Clinton in 1993, which has led to the initiation of significant and continuing US Government grant support for Polio Plus thru USAID.*

Originally a charter member of the Rotary Club of Beachwood, Ohio, USA in 1978, he became Charter President-Elect of the Woodlawn-Westview club in Baltimore, MD in 1987. He presently is a member of the Rotary Club of Towsontowne , Maryland, USA, District 7620. Rob served as District Governor in 1992-1993 in Washington, DC & Central Maryland. He has as served on District Rotary Foundation, club extension, membership development & retention, and youth exchange committees well as district and international youth service, Rotaract, Population Development, international health, Avoidable Blindness and Ambassadorial and Peace Scholarship programmes.

As Governor he established the Major Donor Subcommittee of the District 7620 Rotary Foundation Committee. He established a Future Vision (now Rotary’s Strategic Planning) Committee and the first Rotary Youth Leadership Awards [RYLA] Committee which has grown to an award-winning model programme for Rotary districts throughout the region as well as as well as initiating district-wide 4-Way Test speech contests for high school students.

Rob has been a signature supporter of the RI Avoidable Blindness initiatives of RI President Frank Delvyn of Mexico, and has served on all subsequent RI eye care action and advisory bodies of RI. He currently is on the Board of Directors of the Rotary Action Group for Blindness Prevention and is a member of Cadre of Advisors to Rotary Foundation eye care programs.

He was 2003-2004 RI Avoidable Blindness Initiative Corneal Project Advisor to the International Health Concerns Task Force of Rotary International President Jonathan Majiyagbe of Nigeria. As a strong supporter of youth development as a mentor and career advisor, he served RI President Glenn Estess on the RI Rotaract Committee in 2004-2005 fostering outreach and development of Rotary's young adult organization and currently serves as Chair of the Rotaract ACCT Advisory Board for North America.

Rob is married and has three grown daughters; Alexa, a graduate in art history from University of Colorado at Boulder, is a GIA-trained gemologist (G.G. & G.J.G.) and mother of our awesome grandchildren Anna Madeline and William Bodhi; Anna's picture at birth graces the top of the ketron.org home page. Shana is a graduate in Anthropology and French from University of California at Santa Cruz. After living in France, she became a wine distributor in Baltimore, San Francisco and Washington, DC, and now provides fine wine recommendations from her website, womenofwine.com. Daughter Kymberley Alexa is an accomplished singer and musician and daughter (x-daughter-in-law) Lesa lives in Denver and is raising grandson Sean whilst an honor student in college.
Son Richard lives in Seattle, is married to Jeannete Smith, an accomplished branding and marketing consultant with her own firm, JNETSMITH.COM. They are the proud parents of Nathan, a bright and energetic four-year-old adopted at birth. In addition, Ric's daughter Alana just graduated (June, 2009) from high school in Healdsburg, CA. Son Brad, Sean's father, passed away prematurely in December, 2005

Beyond enjoying being a father and grandfather, his interests include travel, youth development & mentoring, teaching, anything geographic, international relations, history, demographic research and analysis, structuring financial syndications, genealogy, religious thought issues — and most especially humanitarian community service as a social entrepreneur dedicated to the alleviation of hunger and poverty, improved education and literacy, and providing comprehensive health care — focusing particularly on avoidable, preventable and reversible blindness through the Rotary Action Group for Blindness Prevention. He maintains a rather significant interest in genealogy of the Kettenring Family, and wishes he could find time to write historical and genealogical novels based on his own family activities and migrations over the past ten centuries!