Luther Franklin Rogers Jr.

1932 - 2016

Luther Franklin ("Frank") Rogers, Jr., born on December 18, 1932, in Selma, Alabama, passed away on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 2016, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Frank lived all over the United States when he was growing up, from Rogersville, Alabama, and his grandfather "Big Dad's" farm in Mississippi to icy reaches of Minnesota and, during World War II, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State. He attended Industrial Consolidated High School near Lolita, Texas, where he was elected senior class president, was voted "Most Valuable Lineman" on the varsity team, played the male lead in the class play, and graduated as valedictorian of his class. In his childhood, he picked cotton at a penny per pound, and he had jobs as a milkman, a soda jerk, and an ironworker's assistant. In college, he had jobs as a roadbuilding laborer, a draftsman, and a librarian. The first member of his family to go to college, he attended Texas A&M, where he was elected to the honor societies Phi Eta Sigma, Tau Beta Pi, and Phi Kappa Phi. He was a proud member of the Corps of Cadets of the Air Force ROTC and received a bachelor's degree in geology in 1954, winning the George P. Mitchell gold watch and a Houston Geological Society award. He received a graduate scholarship and earned a master of science in geology with an oceanography minor in 1955. Six days later, he went to work for the Humble Oil & Refining Company (which would become Exxon) in Corpus Christi, Texas. He loved boating and fishing there, often walking to a pier to catch trout or flounder for his own dinner. Corpus Christi, friends Harry and Barbara Owens introduced him to Peggy and her children Dale and Kim. Frank and Peggy married on June 25 ("Christmas in June," as he liked to say), 1966. Daughter Roseanne was born in Corpus Christi, and the family soon moved to Houston, where Kathryn and Daniel were born, and then to New Orleans in 1973. Frank continued to work as a loyal and dedicated geologist and geophysicist for Exxon and retired after thirty-nine years, in 1994. He was active in many professional, social, and cultural organizations, including the American Association of Petroleum Geology, the New Orleans Geological Society, the Society of Independent Professional Earth Scientists, Society of Exploration Geophysicists, the Houston Geological Society, the New Orleans A&M Club, the World War II Round Table, and the Civil War Round Table of New Orleans. A patron of the symphony, the opera, and several New Orleans theater companies, Frank enjoyed following the careers of young opera singers. He was a member of Amici: The New Orleans Friends of the Metropolitan Opera National Council, and he enjoyed attending the annual Metropolitan Opera auditions. Frank was a devoted husband and father and a man of integrity, intellect, and culture. He expressed his love through steadfast and unshowy service: No one else washed as many dishes as he did on his family's twice-yearly vacations at Navarre Beach, Florida. For his family, he researched and wrote Some Family History for the Descendants of Luther Franklin Rogers and Nell Romine Rogers (1992) and Chronology and Commentary on Memories of My Life by Nell Romine Rogers (1995). Besides family and genealogy, he enjoyed the cultural offerings of New Orleans, whether a Mardi Gras parade or a night at the theater, and he was an accomplished and avid photographer. In recent years, he created a treasured archive of photographs for his family. He was preceded in death by his father, Luther Franklin Rogers; his mother, Nell Isabel Romine Rogers; and his brother, Louis Romine Rogers. He is survived by his beloved wife of fifty years, Peggy Jean Bull Rogers; his and Peggy's children: Dale Longmire, Kimberly Longmire Terry (Mike), Roseanne Rogers Guerra (Stephen), Kathryn Rogers (Michael), Daniel Franklin Rogers (Maureen), and grandchildren Jade, Alex, Robin, and Benjamin; his sister-in-law Shirley Rogers, nephew Larry Rogers and niece Dana Loomis; cousins Martha Gene Porter and Davelyn Capley; as well as other extended family and friends. He was beloved and will be sorely missed. The family will celebrate his life privately, and he will be inurned at Lake Lawn (Metairie Cemetery). The family will be grateful should any friends and family members choose to honor him by donating to Amici (New Orleans Friends of the Metropolitan Opera National Council, 232 Lake Marina Dr. #8B, New Orleans, Louisiana, 70124; amicimonc.org/donate.