News

By Steven J. Smith

    GULF STREAM — A star athlete. A brilliant and fiercely competitive lawyer. A savvy businessman. A loving husband, father and grandfather. A generous friend. A gentle companion to animals. These are just a few descriptions one receives when learning about the life of Ted Rogers.
    A product of Chevy Chase, Md., Mr. Rogers excelled in tennis in his youth, winning the 1951 U.S. Tennis Association Junior Championships in singles and doubles at the age of 17. But his wife, Patty, said his parents had higher goals in mind for him.
    “They urged him to take up law, as his father was an attorney,” Mrs. Rogers said, adding he joined the firm of Shaw, Pitman, Potts and Trowbridge (now Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw, Pittman), where he played an important role in building its corporate and securities practice. He also served on the board of Chevy Chase Bank.
    “He was instrumental in getting Chevy Chase Bank going,” Mrs. Rogers said.        Mr. and Mrs. Rogers met about 20 years ago when he hired her as property manager for his new Gulf Stream home. Their business relationship evolved into a romantic one over the years and they married about a year ago.
    “I watched his home while he was gone and saw that everything was clean and organized when he came down from up north,” she said. “I made sure the pool and the roof were in good order, as he was going back and forth a lot before he moved from Chevy Chase to Gulf Stream full-time in the mid-1990s.
    “He told me he liked that home because there were paw prints embedded in the tile as you entered the house,” she said. “They reminded him of his dogs, who were like members of his family.
    “Ted was a very loving, caring, generous person who would do anything for his family and friends.”
    Never was that generosity more evident than when his friend Robert Marsteller was injured.
    “Mr. Marsteller had lost his job and was walking in downtown Washington, D.C., when a woman came flying out of a parking garage and pinned him against a UPS truck parked across the street,” Mrs. Rogers said. “He was left paralyzed at 42 years of age, a young wife, two small children and two big dogs. When Ted heard of his plight he immediately offered the Marstellers his five-bedroom home in Chevy Chase. They lived there for three years while their townhouse was reconfigured.”
    Mrs. Rogers said her husband was passionate about sports and that love translated to his son, Ted Rogers, who enjoyed a stellar college football career at Williams College and played linebacker for the Washington Redskins in the early 1990s.
    Mr. Rogers died March 31 at the age 81, after a lengthy illness. He is survived by Mrs. Rogers, two children and eight grandchildren.
    “He was a genuine guy,” Mrs. Rogers said. “For such a brilliant person he was so humble. Very down to earth. ”
Memorial services were held on April 11 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Delray Beach and on April 24 at All Saints Episcopal Church in Chevy Chase, Md.  
Contributions may be made to the Wounded Warrior Project or the Wayside House or the Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League.