Lester Rogers

SCOTTSDALE – Lester R. Rogers passed away on July 7, 2018 at the age of 95 in Scottsdale, AZ. He was born in Collins, Mississippi in September, 1922 but spent his childhood in Las Cruces, New Mexico before moving back to Collins in 1932 where he graduated from Salem High School in 1940, as Captain of the football team. Lester enlisted in the Army in July 1940 and attended Medical Administration School at Camp Barkeley, Texas where he received his officer commission in July 1942. He landed in Normandy, France in 1944 as Commander of the 586th Ambulance Company, attached to General Patton’s Third Army and served in the Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes, and Central Europe campaigns and played a key role in evacuating casualties from combat areas. He returned to the U.S. in July 1945 and was discharged from the Medical Service Corps in January 1954. His significant decorations include: the Bronze Star Medal, the EAME Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal and the French Legion of Honor... – After World War II, Lester completed his college degree in Mathematics and Physics at the University of S. Mississippi under the GI bill, then did graduate work at Tulane University, the University of Tennessee, and the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Physics. He was a teacher at Ohio State University and was instrumental in the development of the Radiation Laboratory at OSU. He then began a long 25-year career with the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission where he held the position of Director of Nuclear Safety and Environmental Protection Standards. In this position he was awarded the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission’s highest bestowed honor—the “Distinguished Service Award”. His working career travels took him to the ten Republics of South America as the U.S. Atomic Energy Attaché, headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina as well as to Africa. He was a frequent advisor to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria. He participated in developing and in teaching Guidance and Nuclear Safety and Environmental Protection Standards for National Nuclear Power Programs in association with Argonne National Laboratory at the University of Chicago. He has spent his retirement years between a cabin in the mountains North of Young, AZ and in Scottsdale, AZ with his late wife Sarah, of 74 years. He is survived by three children, four grandchildren and four great grandchildren.