-from kleigh-

kleigh was visiting mark the other day. kleigh asked mark "did your dad die, grandpa?" mark said,"yes he did". kleigh patted mark on the back and said, "i get your dad back for you grandpa".

-from Mark-

Dad passed away one month ago today. Its been a very difficult month. That void that was left is still very present. I wish I would have talked to him more when he was alive. We are coming home next weekend and it will be very difficult because for the first time We will not be able to see him. I still get very sad and teary-eyed when I go to the website and his picture is there. Mom is still very tired and worn out. She told me two days ago that the grieving has been very hard. Keep Mom in your prayers!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you Dad and will see you in heaven some day!!!!!

Love
Mark

-from Danny-

EULOGY
•
Rev. Thomas H. Rogers; 10/21/26-1/15/08
January 15, 2008; Minneapolis (Rev. M.L. King's birthday)

"First of all, I want to announce that I truly believe that my dad is listening from above today."

"Also, I want to mention that my dad presided over several funerals here, which I just learned about today. No wonder he wanted his own funeral here. It is such a beautiful place"

"My dad grew up in the backwoods of Tennessee during the Great Depression. He was born in a log cabin and grew up in abject poverty. He had a tough time as a kid. My dad went hungry as a child. Two years ago he told me he was used as slave labor as a child. They all had to work that hard just to scratch out a living as subsistence cotton farmers. My dad was plowing the cotton fields behind a mule as young as 8 or 9 years of age. The shack he lived in had holes in the roof and on those rare occasions when it snowed in Tennessee he woke up with snow on his head and blankets as a boy. He learned to sleep with his head under the covers to keep the snow off. This habit continued well into his adult life.
At age 9 his parents simply could not feed all 5 kids anymore so they sent him to live with his Grandpa William. Some other bad things happened to my dad when he was a child but things went a little better for him at Grandpa William's."

"As a psychologist if I had studied his childhood without knowing him I would have predicted that my dad would end up being an alcoholic, or a criminal or a wifebeater, or maybe all three. But no, not my dad, He managed to get a college education on the GI bit and then he devoted the next 33 years of his life to helping others through his ministry in the church. He tried to make a difference in people's lives. Now I don't know how he managed to overcome his difficult childhood enough to accomplish what he did but I guess it must have had something to do with the fact that he had such a wonderful wife."

"In 1989 I was talking to a therapist one night and he asked me this question. What did your dad give you? Well, I had never thought of this before but I have thought of it a lot since then, especially in the past week."

" Well, I came up with this. He gave his kids values. He gave us morals. He gave us ethics. And I like to think he even gave us a little bit of his integrity. I am proud to announce that out of his 7 kids not one of us turned out to be an alcoholic. Not one of us turned out to be a drug addict. Not one of us turned out to be a criminal; and, of his 5 sons not one of us was ever a wife beater, Well, nowadays that's a pretty good record. My dad deserves half the credit for the way we turned out. He tried to make a difference in our lives, too.

"One of the things about which we are so proud of with my dad was his social activism in the 1960's. In 1963 my dad was involved in that historic civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery Alabama with Dr. Martin Luther King. My dad met Rev. King, spoke with him and shook hands with him. It was a risky march. Just before the march started the authorities apprehended a van full of white guys with shotguns who were planning to open fire on the marchers. I shudder to think what might have happened if those guys had not been caught at the last minute."

"But dad made the mistake of marching that 40 miles while wearing his black, leather dress shoes that he always wore to church. I will never forget the look of his feet when he returned home from the march. His feet looked like hamburger. He was in pain and could not walk well for days but I never heard him complain. He felt like he needed to stand up against the ugly injustice of racism and segregation."

"In 1965, my dad and thousands of other ministers participated in a peace rally in Washington, DC. Again, my dad met and shook hands with Rev. King. My dad tried to make a difference in this way, too.

"Now I am going to tell you a story about my dad that no one hears knows. Maybe my mom remembers the first part of the story but no one knows the second part of the story because I have never told anyone. This is a true story about my dad."

"When I was in high school in Wadena, MN one of my classmates blew off his own hand in a hunting accident. His name was Chuck Furan. Well, Chuck never went to our church once and neither did his parents. My dad had never met Chuck but he went to the hospital several times that week to spend time with him. My dad spent several hours talking with Chuck, helping him and counseling him. When I heard about this at the time I thought it was a pretty nice thing to do."

"And now, the rest of the story. It was 3 yearrs later and I was living in the YMCA in St. Paul. I was walking down the street one night in downtown St. Paul, which is a pretty big city. Well, who came walking past me but Chuck Furan. I said, "Chuck, is that you?' He said I looked familiar but he could not place me or recall my name. We got to talking on the street and it turned out that he needed a roommate and I needed a place to live because it was too lonely in the YMCA. So a few days later I moved in with Chuck. Although we only lived together a few months He told me my dad really helped him a lot. Chuck was so impressed that a complete stranger cared enough to spend so much time with him. This meant a lot to Chuck and helped him adjust to life without his right hand. So, my dad tried to make a difference in Chuck's life, also."

"My dad was a good family man too. He and mom were always taking us on family picnics to Phalen Park and Como park on Sunday afternoons. Or he would take us to Phalen Lake where we would swim all day or we would go to como Park Zoo. He took us to Twins games and even to a couple of Duluth Dukes baseball games. When we were teenagers he bought a boat and took us fishing often. When I was in junior and senior high school I went to Methodist Church camp every summer for a week. On two occasions my dad was one of the camp counselors. At first, I was a little embarrassed because I was the only kid there who had their dad along as a camp counselor. But by the end of the week, kids were coming up to me and saying things like, Is that your dad? He's pretty cool. Another would say, You have a groovy dad. Then I was even more proud of my dad. My dad loved young people and he tried to make a difference in their lives."

"And who among us Rogers kids will ever forget dads legendary, "George Washington Bridge?". How many times did he drive us crazy with that song? The same 3 words over and over again. It almost got to the point of being like 100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall! Of course, we all pretended we hated it when he sang that song. But, secretly, we liked it when dad sang the George Washington Bridge song because it meant that he was happy. We liked it when dad was happy. Besides it was the only time we could ever get away with telling him to shut up. That was pretty fun too."

"Now I am going to wrap up these remarks by asking all of you to join me in reciting The Lord's Prayer, which was one of my dad's favorite prayers."

"our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen."

(Looking upward);
"We love you dad.
And we ARE proud of you,
Because you did make a difference.
So rest in peace, my friend.
We will miss you.
So farewell until we meet again.:

- Daniel C. Rogers, in loving memory.