John R. Rogers

An Argosy of Two Rogers Boys

By Ed Mauget

Robert Warren Parry (that’s “Parry” with an “a”) has been a continuous friend since December of 1950. That’s when my family moved from Hoffman Ave, near Rogers, to Jackson Ave, near Minnehaha. It was a move from Hamilton to Cooper, in terms of elementary schools. My first memory of him was of big redhead kid wearing glasses and a brown coat, playing kickball. We hit it off pretty well, since we were both interested in toy trains, model airplanes, and … blowing things up. Well, the latter was later, I guess. 

I used to spend time at his house -- not the reverse -- because his place was more fun. Bob's house was located by the park and the rocky wooded “hills”. I wrote about Bob’s mother last month. She was part of why I hung around so much. 

I didn’t always treat Bob right. I remember calling him to arrange to come to his house, only to run into other kids on the way, playing with them, and eventually standing Bob up. I remember thinking that this wasn’t right, but I still did it. Bob, on the other hand never showed much anger at anybody or any situation. He just got quiet, or shook his head at injustice. Sometimes he quietly got even.

We graduated Cooper school together and then completed four years at Rogers. So far this story is unremarkable except that I practically crashed the Parry family for those years. By graduation time, I was ready to see the World. I finagled a scholarship to Michigan State University, worked to get some airfare, and lit out of Spokane. Bob went the normal route, attending, and graduating from WSU. We corresponded and got together on the increasingly rare times that I returned to Spokane. 

I was enthralled with East Lansing and decided to spend summer there. The campus is at its prettiest in summer. By then I lived in off-campus housing in a room above a private house. Bob needed to take a German course to fulfill a degree foreign language requirement. MSU had a crash German course where they poked a year of German into your head in one summer. Bob came to East Lansing that summer to take German and live in that room with me. Thus, I can say that Bob and I were roommates in college.  The kid kept speaking in German, however.

At the end of that summer, Rogers classmate, Jim Richardson, drove to East Lansing to take Bob back to Spokane. All three of us went down to Indianapolis to the National Drag Races. I remember Jim got stopped by a hostile cop in Ohio. He got stopped again in Indiana, but that particular officer was only interested in the car. Different state cultures, I guess. We said our goodbyes. I took a Greyhound to Detroit afterward to visit my new girlfriend, and another back to East Lansing. The junior year started. 

Later, I lived in a mobile home outside East Lansing. Bob and Jim came to visit from Spokane on the way to I-can’t-remember-where. We all went to Detroit to visit my girlfriend. Then Bob and Jim went on their way. We’re talking about a 4000-mile round-trip jaunt for Jim and Bob here. Kids.

Bob graduated from WSU with a B.S. in physics. He landed an engineering job at Pratt and Whitney, designing fuel cells for Apollo. By then, I was again living in that room that Bob and I earlier had shared. It had no lock – it was wide open. One June weekend I went to Chicago with a friend and his wife. When I returned, there was a note from Bob on the chest-of-drawers. He and a U-Haul had detoured through East Lansing on the way to his new job. I didn’t know he was coming, so missed him. One good thing did happen that week – I met my wife, Carey. 

In November, NY had its first great power blackout. A week later I hooked a plane ride with a rich friend to White Plains. Bob drove there to get me. We spent Thanksgiving near St. Johnsbury, Vermont, with a coworker of Bob’s. Not bad travel for a couple of Rogers brats. 

It took me six years to graduate from MSU. I served six months Army active duty, I went part-time when funds were low, and once dropped out for six months to obtain Michigan residency.  Bob's mom helped fund the lean periods.

When I graduated, I went to San Jose, CA, to work for IBM for 34 years. I was often sent to the Mid-Hudson Valley for training (the Vatican of IBM). Once, I drove to East Hartford to see Bob and meet his new wife and newer child. I visited them at least twice. They showed me around Connecticut and Massachusetts.. 

By 1976 they were living in Pennsylvania Amish country. I was in DC on business, so hopped over there to visit them. This time they showed me Paradise, Blueball, Bird In Hand, and Intercourse – all Amish towns in PA. 

In 1978 Carey and I moved to North Carolina. Bob called me in California before the move and said that they had just moved to NC by coincidence.

Our families continue to live less than 200 miles apart in NC. We visit one-another every couple of months nowadays. Bob has a vision problem in one eye and has to check in with the Duke University Eye clinic periodically. We put them up when they are here for that. Other times we visit them. Lately airfare from our airport to Spokane is cheaper, so they’ve stored their car in our driveway during a trip to Spokane or two. They were trapped in Spokane for a month during 911. We watched their car for them.

August 31st, I’ll visit Spokane and stay with Bob’s mother, Mary, whom I wrote about last month. Bob took his Spokane trip in June. Bob and I have almost fifty-four years of friendship. Over a quarter century of it has been spent in NC, 2000 miles from Spokane. Remarkable for a couple of Rogers kids from the Minnehaha district. That's an  enduring friendship. Bob certainly qualifies as a Rogers First Mate.

-Ed

GEORGE ELMER BROWN--St. George of Hillyard

By Wyatt Newman

What on Earth was a lawyer with a degree from Princeton University doing living and practicing law in Hillyard? I wish I had found out. All I know is that George Elmer Brown, attorney at law/real estate (as his shingle announced) had an office on a corner in downtown Hillyard. He and his wife, Gretchen, didn't have any kids of their own as far as I know, but he was one of those kind of men that they make movies about, movies such as Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey in "It's a Wonderful Life," because of the theme that the kindest, most wonderful, inspirational, caring, compassionate people imaginable can and do exist. 

Known professionally as "George Elmer Brown," he was known by hundreds, maybe thousands of boys, as just "George." Remember, this was a time when it was considered inappropriate to refer to adults by their first names unless there was affection, as with an uncle, such as "Uncle Bob." (E.d. Still like that in the South) 

He had nothing to do with Rogers directly, but his influence was enormous to a number of boys over many years who attended the high school of Hillyard. In the "times were tough" days of The Great Depression, juvenile crime was serious, especially in Hillyard, a community that was always and probably still is one of the roughest parts of Spokane. To assist in bringing some peace and order, he began a club for boys--"The Hillyard Booster Club." Any boy could join, as long as he subscribed to "The Three Cardinal Principles: clean living, community service, crime prevention." 

The club met weekly, on Wednesday evenings, as I recall, above the Hillyard fire station. In the room was a shuffle board and pool table. Around the room were old theatre seats. A big heavy, brown table was where the officers presided during meetings. Officers (president, vice president, secretary and sergeant at arms) were elected for one-year terms. No second terms for the same office, but the most dedicated members, such as Ken Kelling, often served in all four positions over a four-year period. We could get into the club anytime by just going into the fire station and asking for the key. There was never a problem with vandalism or disorder. 

George had connections. Every year after elections newly elected officers had their picture in the Spokesman Review. Every year a local physician, Dr. Rieke, would come and give us the much-anticipated "sex talk." It was, for most of us, our only formal sex education. Every year there was a candy selling contest, the four highest salesmen getting a free trip to Los Angeles for the Rose Bowl, (fifty yard line seats for all four plus two chaperones, provided by Bing Crosby) and a visit with photo op with Bing on a set. Disneyland. Knott's Berry Farm...the usual tourist sites, and what an experience for a bunch of guys who came from homes generally unable to afford such a trip. 

At meetings, the last item of business was "George's Report." He went over important announcements and such. He let us run the club. He never even interfered when discipline with the old hack paddle was administered by the sergeant at arms. Some of those whacks of a pine board on a pair of bungies was enough to nearly crack a window. George would wince but say nothing. 

George was one of those adults who set a tone of propriety and order without interfering, letting "boys be boys." He was a dad and grampa to many of us guys. He would help, very discreetly, families in trouble, especially moms who were raising their sons by themselves. I know he kept one such family in a house to live in. He helped my own mom, gratis, with a difficult legal matter. She didn't know who to go to for legal advice, basically in need of a restraining order from a no-good. I told her to "Ask George." She did and felt there was no more need to worry. From that time on, George was my patron saint. 

Once again, Ken Kelling, my personal First Mate of all first mates, invited me into the club. It was a long hike from where I lived at the time I joined, across the street from Logan to Hillyard, and on a school night, but such things were common for many of us then. It was not a time when parents drove kids everywhere. Heck, many of us didn't even have a family car. 

It's hard to say what my life would have turned out to be without Ken getting me involved and having the experience of knowing an adult male like George. I hope that he has been properly honored by the citizens of Hillyard, Spokane, the state of Washington or any person or organization that recognizes and honors unselfish, noble and downright, truly GREAT PERSONS such as GEORGE ELMER BROWN.

President George Herbert Walker Bush had his "Thousand Points of Light" recognition for such people who contributed so much to their communities or society. George's light should have been one of the brightest of the thousand. 

-Wyatt