Peter W. Rogers

NAHANT -- Peter Warren Rogers died peacefully at home in Nahant with his beloved wife and family by his side on Friday morning, December 21, 2018, after battling lung cancer. He was 74 years old. The eldest son of Mary Louise (Warren) Rogers and George Phillips Rogers of Mayville, N.Y., he is survived by his wife of 48 years, Beatrice Lorge Rogers, his daughter Leah Rogers and her husband, Tomás Villaseñor, sisters Ann Rogers, Ellen Chamberlin and her husband Bill, and Susan Rogers, nephews John Phillips Rogers, Matthew Peter Warren Rogers, and William Bricker Chamberlin IV, and niece Mary Chamberlin, and three great-nephews. Born in Key West, Fla., he grew up in Western New York State and has lived in Massachusetts since the 1960s. He was educated at Mayville Central School in Mayville, N.Y., and Ridley College in St. Catharines, Ontario. After graduation with honors from Harvard University, he went to sea for four years aboard the Coast Guard icebreakers EDISTO and GLACIER and the buoytender SPAR. He was a graduate of the Navy's Deep Sea Divers School and served as a diver for three years in the Arctic and the Antarctic. He left the service in 1971 as a First Class Quartermaster, the navigation rate. He received his MBA with highest honors from the Northeastern University Graduate School of Business Administration and was a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, the business honor society. He became a full-time oil painter in 1976. He was the second President of the American Society of Marine Artists and was a Fellow of ASMA for 20 years.  He has had paintings in more than 30 major museum exhibitions, and his paintings have been acquired for the permanent collections of many museums and corporations. He served as class secretary and co-chair of five Harvard class of 1967 reunions and received a commendation from the Harvard Club of the North Shore for his service.  He spent the latter half of his life involved in government and municipal finance in his small town of Nahant. In the months before his death he was honored for his 40 years of public service, receiving commendations from the Town of Nahant and from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He spoke publicly for the last time at the Nahant Board of Selectmen meeting ten days before his death. He was unfailingly honest, clear-eyed and forthright. When he learned of his terminal diagnosis in May, he reached out to friends and relatives to tell them their impact on his life. Throughout his illness, he maintained his sense of humor and his kindness. He will be deeply missed. Service information: A memorial visitation will be held in the SOLIMINE FUNERAL HOME, 67 Ocean Street (Rt 1A) in Lynn on Friday December 28th from 3-7 p.m. A Celebration of Life is planned for the spring, and a private family burial will be held in his hometown of Mayville, N.Y. next summer.  Directions and guestbook at www.solimine.com .