David Sargent Rogerson

A schoolteacher and standout athlete, died on Saturday, December 15th, at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center after a long, well-fought battle with heart disease. He was 76. Dave, or "Rogie", as he was known to his children, grandchildren, students, and friends, was born on June 20th, 1931, in Brookline, Massachusetts. He graduated from Middlesex School in 1950 where he was a leading scorer on the 1950 Independent School Championship hockey team and the captain of the baseball team. He then attended Bowdoin College as an ROTC student, where he took scoring honors again as captain of the 1954 New England League Championship Hockey team. He was President of the Student Council when he graduated in 1954. He was named as an honorable mention to the All New England Hockey team roster in 1953 & 1954, as well as to the first squad of the All-Eastern Small College hockey team in 1954. He served in the army for two years during the Korean War. He was stationed in Frobisher Bay in the Baffin Islands from July - October, 1955, and was promoted to 1st Lieutenant in February, 1956. Until August of 1962, he served as a reserve commissioned officer. He continued to play hockey with the Cambridge Comets in the South Shore Amateur Hockey League, and was invited to try out for the 1956 Olympic hockey squad. He loved to play golf as well, and shot in the low 70s. For eleven years he served under Eliot Putnam at Noble and Greenough School in Dedham, MA, teaching history and math, and coaching varsity hockey, and JV football and baseball. His 1965-1966 ice hockey team won the Independent School League Championship. In September, 1958, he married Anita Andres. Their family spent summers in Middletown, Rhode Island, where Mr. Rogerson taught at the St. George's summer school. In the fall of 1967 he moved on to Groton School in Groton, MA, where he served as Director of Admissions and Director of Athletics, taught history, and coached football, hockey and baseball. In 1989, he was named to the Massachusetts Hockey Coaches Hall of Fame. In 1990, David and Anita retired to Bridgewater, VT. For five years David worked part time in admissions at Cardigan Mountain School in Canaan, NH, and volunteered at the Bridgewater Village School, tutoring first, second and third graders in math and reading. In addition to his wife of 49 years, he leaves his brother Charles Rogerson, of Duxbury, MA., and his children and their families: Laura, Robinson, Grace, Katherine and Elibet Moore, of Groton, Ma.; Gus, Robin Morse, Lucy and Francis Rogerson, of New York, N.Y.; Anita, Jeff, Bronwyn and Samuel Morris, of Woodstock, Vt.; and Hank, Jilann Spitzmiller, and Isabel Rogerson, of Santa Fe, N.M.; as well as hundreds of teammates, students, colleagues, friends and all the wonderful doctors and nurses who have cared for him over the past twenty-five years. There will be a celebration of his life on Saturday, December 29th at 2 p.m. at the Barnard Town Hall, 115 North Road in Barnard, VT. A graveside service will be held at 2 p.m. June 20, 2008 at Hardscrabble, the family land, at 1344 Greengate Road in Bridgewater, Vt. All are welcome. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the David S. Rogerson Scholarship Fund at Bowdoin College, 4100 College Station, Brunswick, ME 04011.