If ever guardian angels kept watch over
Southeast Texas and Lamar University,
they flew on the wings of Julie and Ben
Rogers. And if ever one person symbolized
the soaring spirit of entrepreneurship, it was
Ben Rogers.
“It wasn’t about them. It was about the
community they loved, and it was about
working closely together for the benefit of
everyone,” said their daughter, Regina. “It
was all about love.”
Ben Rogers’ father died at the age of
29 during a flu epidemic in Chicago and
left six children, ranging in age from 6
months to 9 years. Their mother could not
read or write English, and she soon lost the
leather-manufacturing business her husband
had started.
When he was 8, Ben was out on the
street selling newspapers. He went on to
work as a milkman and laundry man.
“Dad never forgot his roots and people
who are unable to succeed because of their
limiting circumstances,” Regina said. “He
always wanted to make opportunities available
for others.”
Julie Rogers became an attorney at the
age of 19, while Ben Rogers had no college
education – which is why he valued Lamar
so much, their daughter said.
“I can remember when my parents
received honorary
degrees from
Lamar. They were
so excited. That meant so much more to
Mom than her college or law degrees. Dad,
who was quite an athlete, would have loved
to have gone to college. He attended night
school for a couple of years, but he just
couldn’t do it and work 18 hours a day too.
He always felt that having an education
would have enabled him to accomplish
more.”
Nonetheless, he and his brothers went
on to extraordinary success, with hearts even
bigger than their business ventures.
Now, the Rogers family has established
the Ben J. Rogers Chair in Entrepreneurship
in Lamar’s College of Business. It is a gift
from the grateful children, grandchildren
and great-grandchildren of Julie and Ben
Rogers: Dr. Arvey Rogers ’55 of Miami,
Fla.; the late Dr. Bernard Rogers ’55; and
Regina Rogers of Beaumont; Arvey’s children
and their spouses, Stacey and Dr.
Robert Edelman, Scott and Pamela Rogers
and Shana Rogers; and Arvey’s grandchildren,
Millie and Rose Rogers and Jessie and
Benjamin (named for his great-grandfather)
Edelman.
“They all are very much aware of the
legacy of their grandparents and their relationship
to Southeast Texas. This is being
done by our family in honor of Dad—a
gentleman who, although he didn’t have a
college education, believed strongly in the
ability of young people to forge ahead and
become leaders in their communities, as
well as successful businessmen and women.”
The chair serves not only to advance
the region but also to recognize the role
Lamar has played in the Rogers’ lives. “We
know how important raising money is to
implementing services and providing impetus
to students,” Regina said. “We want to
attract as many people as we can to Lamar,
so we felt it was important for our family to
provide a lead gift, particularly in the
College of Business—an area where Dad
had such an impact on Southeast Texas.”
The Ben J. Rogers Chair in
Entrepreneurship is the pivotal phase of a
long-range plan to make entrepreneurship
an area of excellence for the college, said
Enrique “Henry” Venta, dean of Lamar’s
College of Business. “The next step is to
bring in a leading teacher-scholar. The
generous support of the Rogers family will
enable us to attract a high-visibility individual
who will provide curricular guidance,
teach some of the courses and conduct
research. Our expectation is that this person
will also be very involved in spreading
entrepreneurship throughout the region.
“We are most grateful to the Rogers
family for this endowment and for the confidence
the family has placed in the College
of Business,” Venta said. “It’s great to bring
in the chair, but the endowment and the
name—because of the great reputation of
Ben Rogers in this area—will enable us to
attract an individual of the highest caliber.”
The Rogers’ contributions to Lamar
University are legendary, from the “I Have
A Dream” Program and the Julie and Ben
Rogers Community Service Award to the
Ben J. Rogers Outstanding Business
Student Award to the Julie and Ben Rogers
Women’s Athletic Scholarship, established in
1991 by the Babe Zaharias Foundation Inc.
to honor the couple.
“Dad was interested in athletics and
particularly in providing encouragement to
female athletes because he because he felt
that women were not always given the same
opportunities as men,” Regina said.
Ben also was a driving force behind
Beaumont’s Babe Zaharias Museum, working
hard to see that mementoes and memories
of the world’s greatest female athlete
were preserved.
Of the Rogers Outstanding Business
Student Award, Regina said: “After Dad’s
passing, we wanted to recognize extraordinary
young people who were graduating
and help them financially. It’s been so
rewarding to see the caliber of students
who are excelling and, after receiving
the award, going on to become leaders in
business.”
Julie and Ben were charter board members
of Lamar’s Friends of the Arts, beginning
in the early 1970s, and devoted arts
patrons. Regina well remembers the year
her mother and father chaired Le Grand Bal
while Julie was still recovering from breast
cancer surgery. Always one to think big,
Julie brought in an elephant to complement
the event’s “Under the Big Top” theme.
“Dad believed education was the key to
success,” Regina said. “That is why, on his
75th birthday, Mom, my brothers and I
contributed the funds for 75 scholarships in
honor of his 75th birthday. He didn’t want
a party. He said he would much rather take
youth from single-parent families to a baseball
game at the Astrodome in Houston.”
That did not occur, but, at a surprise
birthday party on June 5, 1988, Regina
said, “We took that concept and rolled it out
into something in perpetuity.” Her father’s
gift was the Ben Rogers/Lamar University/
Beaumont Independent School District “I
Have a Dream” Program, based on a
national initiative for sixth-graders. Seventyfive
“dreamers” would earn scholarships to
Lamar upon successfully completing their
studies in public school. They were paired
with mentors, many from Lamar, and
provided with other enhancements and
incentives. With four additional classes of
75 students each and support from people
throughout the country, nearly 400
“dreamers” have graduated from high
school; more than one-half of them earned
degrees in higher education, and many are
from Lamar.
Regina’s brothers both majored in
pre-medicine at Lamar. Bernard became an
optometrist, while Arvey graduated from
the University of Texas Medical Branch in
Galveston and completed an internship in
Philadelphia and his residency in Miami,
Fla., where he is a retired gastroenterologist
and professor of medicine emeritus at the
University of Miami Medical School. He is
a former president of the American College
of Gastroenterology.
“His memories of Lamar—and particularly
of his biology professor, Dr. Edwin
Hayes—are great,” Regina said. “No matter
where he has been, he is a Lamar University
graduate and proud of it. He has always
attributed part of his success to his teachers
and to the education he received at Lamar.”
What most people don’t know, Regina
said, is that her mother was also a part-time
Lamar student, attending classes with her
sons. One of the classes was psychology,
Regina recalls. “I was a little girl at the time,
but I remember they were very competitive
in that class at Lamar.”
Ben Rogers never saw himself as a role
model, his daughter said. “But we feel he is
a role model in that young people today can
be motivated by his accomplishments and
the important principles he embodied,
including integrity, loyalty and compassion.
He was a man of his word, and if he said he
was going to do something, you could bank
on it. His goal was for a project to succeed,
and money was never the bottom line. It
was its success in terms of what it meant to
the region, whether it was Gateway
Shopping City, Parkdale Mall or any of the
endeavors in which he and my uncles were
involved.”
Ben Rogers and his brothers—Sol,
Nate and Vic—founded Texas State Optical
and were involved in projects in other areas
of the country, Regina said, “but their real
allegiance and their devotion was to
Southeast Texas.”
The threads of Regina Rogers’ ties to
Lamar University create a richly woven
tapestry, colored by memories of childhood.
“My family was very close to Mary and
John Gray, whose lives were devoted to
Lamar,” she said, and “we spent many
wonderful occasions together.”
More important, Regina said, was the
feeling her parents had, early on, that Lamar
was an invaluable resource for Southeast
Texas, that collaboration between Lamar
and the region’s communities should be
enhanced and the relationships nurtured—
benefiting everyone involved.
“When Dad was president of the
Chamber of Commerce in the 1960s, he
made Lamar a major focus,” Regina said.
“He used to say, ‘As goes Lamar, so goes
Southeast Texas.’ They’re linked so closely
that one’s success is dependent on that
of the other. Lamar is the catalyst to
development. Lamar’s successes—
particularly in the past few years
under Jimmy Simmons’ direction—
have enhanced the image of
Southeast Texas, statewide and
throughout the country.”
In her own right over the
years, Regina Rogers has had a
profound impact on Lamar. She
served as a regent of the former
Lamar University System, stepping
down from that position to accept
an appointment to the state’s
Coordinating Board for Higher
Education, where she served six
years. “I did everything I could to
direct resources to Lamar and
benefit the university,” she said.
Regina earned her undergraduate
degree from Newcomb
College at Tulane University and a
law degree from the University of
Houston. Her philanthropies, like
those of her parents, are a “tale of two cities,” extending to Houston.
Arvey Rogers’ cancer diagnosis when he was in his 20s became a
catalyst for the family’s long relationship with the M.D. Anderson
Cancer Center, where Regina is a senior member of the board of
visitors. Her attendance at charitable events in the Bayou City is as
omnipresent as it is across the Golden Triangle.
Regina saw first hand the many ways in which her parents
touched people’s lives in Southeast Texas—and the love and great
appreciation they received in return. “People would ask Dad why he
stayed here. They could have lived anywhere in the world, but this
was home. This is where they thrived. This is where they wanted to
spend their years, helping. And that is what they did.
“I learned so much from my parents about relationships and
what is really important in life,” she said. “I remember as a child
when Dad would ask us at the dinner table: ‘What have you done
for someone else today?’ It was always about how we could help
others. He was a man
who easily expressed
his love and concern
for other people, and
he derived great joy
from helping them.
“Mom was always
thinking about people
who did not have
opportunities for an
education or financial
resources. When I was
young, if I saw something
I liked, she
encouraged me to select something I no longer needed and give it to
a needy child before I was given anything new.”
Julie and Ben Rogers’ imprints span the Southeast Texas landscape,
from the Julie and Ben Rogers Cancer Institute and the Ben J.
Rogers Regional Visitors Center at Ford Park to the Julie Rogers
Theatre for the Performing Arts and Wuthering Heights Park, which
were gifts from Ben in honor of Julie to the city of Beaumont and
reflect his great love for her.
Yet, said Regina, “It’s not about putting your names on buildings
or putting Dad’s name on a chair as much as it is about trying
to perpetuate that in which he believed so strongly: the importance
of Lamar, of education and of providing programs to keep outstanding
youth in this region so they choose to build their lives in
Southeast Texas. That is the way to sustain and grow a community.”`
Why support Lamar University? “Because Lamar is impacting
thousands of people and will do so for generations to come.”
Simmons has built a team to make Lamar a leader in educational
excellence, Regina said. “Through their efforts and ability to attract
dollars, the potential is unlimited. This is the right time for Lamar
University to excel, to forge ahead, to become No. 1. As Dad always
said, ‘Reach for the moon, and you might land among the stars.’
The sky is the limit.”
Ben Rogers was born June 5, 1913, and died Dec. 14, 1994.
Julie was born April 6, 1914, and died Feb. 12, 1998.
Regina Rogers hears a lot about the legacy of her parents. She is
carrying it on, people say. She is perpetuating their names, carrying
their torch. But, she insists, “I am not interested in perpetuating their
names as such as much as I am in continuing their love for Southeast
Texas and the good deeds they performed so selflessly and which
touched the lives of so many people.”
