Roger Alan Boggs

1946 - 2023

1946-2022

Roger Alan Boggs died in hospice care in Aptos, California on Dec. 13, 2022 after a long illness. Roger suffered a debilitating stroke in July 2017 and was in varying levels of assisted care for the last five years of his life, cared for by his son Jared, daughter-in-law, Nelly, and their dog, Luke.

Roger was born in Parkersburg, WV on November 20, 1946. He was the son of Arlo Dye Boggs, a professor of Chemistry at Bowling Green University, and Marjorie Wigal Boggs, an elementary school teacher. Roger lost his mother to cancer at age 9. Roger's older brother, David, passed away in 2021.

After high school in Bowling Green, OH, Roger attended his father's alma mater, Marietta College, majoring in Chemistry. He then pursued his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin as one of Charles P. Casey's (2004 ACS President) first graduate students. Roger met his wife of 32 years, Angela Muni, in 1970. Roger and Angie had two sons, Derek and Jared. Roger's sons were the joy of his life. Derek was diagnosed with a life altering liver disease during his teen years and passed away in 2015. Roger is survived by his son Jared (Nelly), granddaughters Emily and Olivia, daughter-in-law, Lynda (Rick), niece Laura (David), nephew James and numerous members of the Muni family, who were a second family to him.

Roger was proud of his West Virginia roots and would often tell stories about his dad and uncle (Bubby and Toadie) and his West Virginian relatives. He remained close with two college friends, Chuck Riecker and John Frey. Roger would often go west to visit John in Fort Collins, CO for long bicycle excursions. He enjoyed playing Words with Friends under the name of "Buffy." He was able to renew playing WWF after his stroke and enjoyed Facetiming with close friends and family.

Roger joined a number of Wisconsin PhDs as a member of the research staff at Polaroid Corporation in Cambridge, MA. He rose to become a research group leader at Polaroid and mentored many of the younger chemists hired in the early 80's including Mike Zuraw, Sandra Russo-Rodriguez and Socorro Ramos. One of his biggest contributions at Polaroid was the synthesis and process development related to the novel yellow dye used in Polaroid's Spectra System.

Roger left Polaroid to pursue laser ablation printing plates at Presstek in New Hampshire. He later had stints at Warner-Babcock Institute and at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell before joining former Polaroid CTO, Satish Agrawal, at Performance Indicator (later Bambu Global) in Lowell, MA. In collaboration with Satish at Performance Indicator, and relying on chemistry initially developed at Polaroid, he invented a removable tattoo technology.

Roger had a great love of woodworking and purchased his last house in Harvard, MA close to long-time friends John and Susan Lee. He was in the process of rehabbing the house at the time of his stroke.

There will be a Memorial Service for Roger at the Harvard Unitarian Church at noon on Saturday, June 10th, 2023. Donations in Roger's memory can be made to the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation (https://cholangiocarcinoma.org/).



View the online memorial for Roger Alan Boggs