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John J. Rogers Wasilla, AK QCWA # 23606 Chapter 92 |
John Joseph Rogers passed on Sunday, June 26, 2016, at Mat-Su Regional Hospital. He was born on April 22, 1943, to Eunice R. Pemberton in Chicago, Ill. He was adopted and raised there by Joseph and Frieda Rogers.
He was introduced to Amateur Radio as a teen and got his license. It was a passion of his and his career for the rest of his life.
He enlisted with the Air Force when he was 18, and they took his electronics interests and gave him more in depth training until he graduated and was sent to Taiwan. He was the radio man for an elite military unit and fought in Vietnam and did some other tech work for the Air Force.
After leaving the military he ended up in Seattle, Wash., where he worked fixing electronic equipment for Western Union.
He got a boat and loved boating there. He met his first wife, Anne, got married and decided to go back to school to be a teacher. He graduated from the Far East and Russian Institute of the University of Washington in East Asian History. He then came north to Alaska to teach, as Seattle was in the Boeing bust and jobs were scarce. He came up for one year in 1972, and ended up staying for the rest of his life. He went on to teach at Tyonek and then on the Kenai. He also worked in the oil patch at one point.
He and Anne divorced with no children. He became a teacher for the Kenai Peninsula College in electronics and ended up at Mat-Su College as head of the Electronics Department. There he met and married R'Nita West. He went on and learned Cisco Networking and put together the Cisco Networking Lab at Mat-Su College and continued teaching both until it evolved into a computer networking degree program. He saw many changes in his career at Mat-Su. He loved teaching and he always wanted to take care of his students and help them learn the skills they needed to make a career for themselves and their families. He was proud to have put in 30 years of teaching in Alaska before he retired.
After retiring, he spent time with Amateur Radio groups and helped with testing and in other ways when he could. He also enjoyed traveling with his family and doing road trips. He was proud to be a Veteran and tried to support and talk with other Veterans in the area.
He was also proud to discover his heritage including his Chippewa origins.
He died from cancer. His strength and bravery was incredible to see.
He will be missed more than can be expressed by his wife, R'Nita, and their daughter, Aurora, and those who knew him well. He was a loving husband and father, who meant what he said, was straight with people and was just wonderful.
He and his wife, R'Nita, shared 28 years together and more time together would have been even better. He was so very proud of his daughter, Aurora, as many people will have heard. He was strong, brave, highly intelligent, loving man of strong convictions and resolution. He was a teacher and a soldier and he had the heart of a poet. The world lost a good man.
A public viewing will be held on Tuesday, July 5, 2016, at Legacy Funeral Home, Kehl's Palmer Chapel, 209 South Alaska St. in Palmer, from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. He will be buried at Fort Richardson. John didn't like funerals, so bright colors are welcome, but you're welcome to wear what you feel like. The procession will start at 3 in the afternoon, on Wednesday, July 6, 2016, at the Arctic Valley gate. Please arrive 15 minutes early.
Afterwards, a Celebration of his life will be held at Garcia's restaurant in Eagle River, Alaska. If you have some special memory of John, write it down and bring it for the family.