Lorene Rogers

Lorene Rogers was unassuming in style but a trailblazer in academia. As president of the University of Texas, she was the first woman to lead a major public university in the United States. Moreover, she studied biochemistry at a time when few women worked in science. Rogers, 94, died Sunday evening at an assisted-living center in Dallas. She had broken her leg in October and never fully recovered, said her niece, Donna O'Dell. Rogers earned master's and doctoral degrees at UT and began her career there in 1949. "They would not make her a professor of chemistry because, at the time, they wouldn't give that position to women," O'Dell said. "So they put her in the department of home economics and nutrition." She gradually rose through the ranks, becoming assistant director of a biochemical institute, a full professor, an associate dean of graduate studies, vice president and, in 1974, interim president, after the dismissal of Stephen Spurr as president. But it was her selection a year later as president by the Board of Regents that drew national attention, and not just because of the ascendancy of a woman in a male-dominated field. A faculty-student advisory committee had recommended against Rogers, preferring other candidates. And faculty members — some of whom said at the time that the regents' choice disregarded student and faculty opinion — called for her immediate resignation. Thousands of students rallied to protest her appointment. "That put somewhat of a cloud over her, but she worked her way through that," Peter Flawn, who succeeded Rogers as president, said Monday. "She had a remarkable career. If she had been born 25 years later, she might have, as a woman scientist, achieved more national distinction. She came along at a time when women were having a difficult time in science." William Livingston, a retired senior vice president, was chairman of the Faculty Senate at the time of Rogers' appointment, and he recalled that they got along "more or less" while disagreeing on many points. "One has to respect her dedication and hard work," Livingston said. "She became president at a very difficult time and handled it as well as anybody could handle it. I think the university is in her debt." Current UT President William Powers Jr. noted that no other woman has led UT. "Lorene Rogers faced challenges with grace and intelligence," Powers said. "She was not afraid to make tough decisions. Lorene Rogers made a great contribution to UT, and we will miss her." Born in Prosper, about 20 miles east of Denton, in 1914, Rogers had three older brothers and two younger sisters. Her intelligence became evident at a young age, and she advanced to second grade on her first day of school. She earned a bachelor's degree in English from North Texas State Teachers College, now the University of North Texas. She taught English for a few years and, in 1939, married Burl Gordon Rogers, whom she had met while they were students at North Texas. They moved two years later to New Jersey, when Burl Rogers, a chemist, took a job in industry. He died later that year of injuries he received in a laboratory explosion. Widowed at 27, Rogers eventually moved back to Texas, enrolling at UT to study chemistry like her husband. "She decided that if he liked chemistry so well, that she wanted to pursue it also," O'Dell said. Rogers never remarried and did not have children. "She devoted her whole life to the university and to her work," O'Dell said. Rogers lived in Austin until her family moved her to Dallas in November, O'Dell said. She is survived by a sister, Beulah Conatser of Dallas, and numerous nieces and nephews. In accordance with Rogers' wishes, there will be no funeral service, and her ashes will be buried at her husband's grave in Albany, northeast of Abilene, in a private ceremony.