Rogers

Rogers Shaw By Susan Shaw Rogers Shaw was born in Missouri, January 10, 1944. He was brown-eyed and reddish-brown hair like his parents. He was an active little boy and when he was a toddler, his mother and grandmother laughed as he was putting his head under the porch’s downspout at Mammy’s double storied home. In high school, he was the school’s team star basketball player. He became famed for making twelve points during one of their games. That led to his being the number one draft pick for college basketball. He went to Utah University. Was not one of their favored sons and so transferred to Oklahoma University. There, he red-shirted and then joined O.U.’s team. He was head lifeguard in the town’s new swimming pool. There he noticed a coed diving in the diving well where he was lifeguarding, and then she swam in the pool to critique her friend’s dive. He blew his whistle at her to get out. She did, but didn’t use the ladder. Another whistle. Susan, his future wife, was a little piqued. She and her friend, Gail, went to the other pool and Susan was teaching her friend to swim in the rope lanes. By then, he had moved to guard that area. Note. No one was even swimming in that Olympic sized pool. Because you were to be swimming there, he blew his whistle… a third time. Susan asked what she had done wrong again.

He told her then got down off the stand and said, “Well, it’s a nice day, isn’t it? She stormed out of the water and said, “Come on Gail. We’re leaving.” During his coursework, he took Fencing as a course. The girls there thought he was so cute and one said, “We called him Athlete of the Century.” He was always friendly with the girls. Before graduation, he properly met Susan and afterwards, he and Susan got married. They moved to Florida, Fort Walton Beach where he was put in charge of all the athletic facilities. He and Susan built a sailboat that when he got new orders to flight school, they sold and got enough money to pay for the furniture in their home during his flight school. There, they had their first child. The first of seven… Audrey, the prettiest baby ever born… blond and blue eyed. After flight school he was ordered to Vietnam. However, Susan asked if he could get out of this assignment as he had just had a child. But he wouldn’t do it. He was patriotic and Susan respected him for it. He went to Vietnam, leaving Susan, Audrey and their second child, Rogers in Norman, Oklahoma. When he returned from Vietnam, they moved to Washington, then Oregon where they had two more boys, Bill and Scott. Then their next assignment was Okinawa where they had their sixth child, then to Tampa, Florida. There in Florida, Rogers trained to fly helicopters.

Then, he retired to move to Oklahoma again, and took a job with the FAA, teaching pilots how not to crash their airplanes using psychological principles. He was very popular at the FAA. They aways chose Rogers to emcee their holiday programs. He could be funny. He was a machine with what he could do. For example, he made steps with railroad ties on a hill outside their house. His mother-in-law, thought, this time, Rogers has bitten off more than he can chew. But he had it finished the next day. Another time, he dug a drainage ditch by himself. With the help of John, he made their terrace into a large garden room where many parties were given. Forty guests, one Thanksgiving. Starting 2001, the family had seven dogs, mostly red labs. He adored them and they adored him in return. After many years there, he retired from the FAA. So began his retirement. Susan continued to volunteer teaching English to foreign students. They so enjoyed a trip to Europe, traveling to France and Germany where Susan had grown up with her family. Today, they love to travel. They spent several years going to Branson, Missouri. Today they are looking forward to going to Europe and especially want to see Switzerland.