John West Rogers

John West Rogers

John Rogers, a retired executive with the General Electric Company, former Mayor of Hudson, Ohio, and resident of Laurel Lake in Hudson, Ohio since 1998, passed away at Akron City Hospital where he had been receiving hospice care since early November.

Mr. Rogers was born on December 2, 1914 in Wheeling, West Virginia, where his father, George Jackson Rogers, was a prominent estate and trust lawyer. His mother, Clara West Rogers, was an educator who served for many years as Dean of Women at West Liberty State College in Wheeling. The Rogers family had been established in Wheeling since the 1840s when Alexander Rogers, a successful merchant, moved from Belfast in Northern Ireland. The West family, on his mother's side, came from Bellefontaine, Ohio. Mr. Rogers' great-grandfather, William Henry West, was an Ohio Supreme Court Justice and a very well known figure in Ohio politics during the second half of the nineteenth century. Called the "Blind Judge" because of a vision impairment that he acquired in mid-career, Judge West was a friend of Abraham Lincoln and a leading power broker during several presidential elections.

Mr. Rogers attended the Linsly Institute in Wheeling and Cornell University, where he graduated in 1938 with a degree in electrical engineering. At Cornell he was an officer of the Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity, member of the Engineering Honor Society, and captain of the Varsity Crew. Cornell oarsmen reached the final round of national and Ivy League competition during two successive seasons and were in contention for the Olympic Games, had they been held in 1940. At Linsly, he earned letters in all major sports, was the class valedictorian, and head of the cadet corps.

Mr. Rogers began a forty-three year career with the General Electric Company, when he joined their Schenectady, N.Y. office in 1939. However, he requested a release for war duty and enlisted in the U.S. Navy at the start of the War. He served for four years as an officer, reaching the rank of Lieutenant Commander, with primary responsibilities as chief engineer at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida. This NAS played a key role in anti-submarine defense of the East Coast during the German assault of 1942 (Operation Drumbeat). Mr. Rogers' brother, James Patterson Rogers, pilot of a B-24 Liberator, was shot down and killed over Germany during the spring of 1944. Captain Rogers is buried at the U.S. Military Cemetery in Liege, Belgium.

John Rogers married Nancy Nisbet Morris of Amsterdam, N.Y. in October of 1942. They lived in Jacksonville, in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, and moved to Hudson, Ohio in 1954, when John was transferred for GE. Nancy, a graduate of Smith College, was active in community affairs and an avid golfer, playing as a member of Twin Lakes and Walden Country Clubs. She also worked for many years as the Assistant Librarian at Western Reserve Academy in Hudson. During John's retirement years the couple traveled extensively, visiting Europe, the Soviet Union, India, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

At the General Electric Company, Mr. Rogers worked in a series of technical and sales management positions, spending time in Springfield, Massachusetts, before moving to the Cleveland, Ohio, and Akron, Ohio offices. He handled industrial equipment sales to major clients, including the Ford Motor Company, Babcox and Wilcox, Bucyrus Erie, and Vaughn Machinery. Since retiring from the firm, he has been active in associations of former GE executives.