Ernest H. Rogers

Ernest Hanes Rogers, 92, of Marietta, died peacefully at his home in the early hours of Memorial Day following a brief illness. He is now reunited with his late wife, Joy Lenney Rogers. A native of Atlanta, he is survived by his daughter, Carol Rogers Reiser of Marietta, nephews Raymond Demars Rogers of Standish, Maine and Harold Carter Rogers of Greer, South Carolina, and special friend, Beatrice Sasser. Hanes, as he preferred to be called, served proudly during World War II in the Army Air Corps which became the United States Air Force prior to the end of the war. He was posted to a number of bases in the United States prior to being transferred to his ultimate destination, Chengdu, China where he was in the meteorology and cryptography service: receiving, coding and transmitting critical weather information to ships in combat in the Pacific Ocean. Later in life, he was a founding member of a WWII Veterans’ roundtable in Marietta, Georgia. Hanes graduated from Atlanta Boys High School and took a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Emory University. He received his Master of Science Degree in Industrial Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he was a Sloan Fellow under the sponsorship of Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills. Following his 18-year career with Fulton Bag he was an executive with W. R. Bean and Sons Printing Company, handling the printing of such publications as Time and Atlanta magazines. An excellent musician, Hanes was a member of the Atlanta Boys High School orchestra, playing bass violin under the baton of Dr. Gaines W. Walter. Hanes was chosen to be a charter member of the Atlanta Youth Symphony which later became the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He also played jazz with members of the Cecil White School of Music in the early days of WSB radio. He even organized a small combo to entertain the troops on the transport ship bringing him home from China after the war, boosting morale as the ship passed through a violent storm in the Atlantic on its way to New York. Throughout his life, Hanes was deeply involved in choral music. He sang in the Emory Glee Club under the direction of Dr. Malcolm H. Dewey and also with Albert Coleman at the Fox Theatre and on WSB. He and his wife, Joy, sang in the choir at Park Street, Cascade and Audubon Forest United Methodist Churches in Atlanta and in the Tri-Cities Chorus in Hapeville, GA. Hanes enjoyed his retirement years spending them volunteering at the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art as a tribute to his artist wife, Joy, where he specialized in the mounting and lighting of exhibits with the help of three other WWII veterans. His many hours at the museum led him to the high honor of having the Volunteer of the Year Award re-named the “E. Hanes Rogers Award.” He was a founding member of the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia, the National Museum of the Pacific War, and the National World War II Memorial. Services will be 3:00 p.m. Saturday at Mayes Ward Dobbins Funeral Home and Crematory in Marietta, GA with Rev. Erik Mayes officiating. Interment will follow at Mountain View Cemetery. Family will receive friends 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. before the service. In lieu of flowers the family is requesting donations be directed to the Alzheimer’s Association, www.alz.org www.mayeswarddobbins.com

Ernest H. Rogers

October 16, 1919 - May 28, 2012