George Greeley Rodgers, an Evening Sun assistant managing editor and amateur World War II historian, died after a brief illness Dec. 6 at his Ellicott City home. He was 84.
Born and raised on Massachusetts’ South Shore, he was a son of Wellington Rodgers, a stockbroker and World War II veteran, and Mary Blodgett, a librarian and homemaker.
He graduated from Scituate High School, where he played football, basketball, and baseball.
“My father made local sports page headlines, and also played fill-in goalie for the hockey team in an era when players did not wear masks or helmets,” said his son, Adam Rodgers.
He earned an English degree at Williams College and played scatback for the college’s varsity football squad and belonged to the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He became a reporter for The Patriot Ledger, a Quincy, Massachusetts, daily newspaper. He earned a master’s degree in journalism at Columbia University and was a Newsweek magazine stringer.
He was then hired as a Baltimore Evening Sun reporter and covered state politics and wrote book reviews before his promotion to features editor and eventually assistant managing editor. He retired in 1998.
“My father adored being a journalist, and his favorite newsroom tales included those about his coverage of the Maryland General Assembly, the state’s Constitutional Convention in the late 1960s, and the Republican National Convention that saw the vice presidential nomination of Spiro Agnew,” his son said.
His son also said, “He also savored his time as an editor, especially his role in editing a series on pioneering brain surgery that won a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism for Jon Franklin in 1979.”
Linell Smith, the “Afterthoughts” columnist, said, “George took me under his wing. He was innovative and ready to take risks and push the envelope. He was behind the Evening Sun’s long, narrative series that ran over five days.”
Mr. Rodgers worked for more than 25 years as an editorial consultant on a variety of projects and continued his interest in World War II history, including the European air war.
“‘The Battle of Britain’ was his favorite movie of all time, but also his area of expertise – he had read so many books about World War II aviation, he could easily have taught a masterclass on the subject,” his son said.
His son also said, “I once asked him what had led to his passion for learning about World War II, and he explained that, while growing up, the single greatest mystery of his and his friends’ childhoods, was that all of their fathers had gone to war, but none of them talked about it when they returned. He wanted to know.”
His wife, Margaret Brister Rodgers, said, “He was occupied for many years writing his own historical accounts in various forms, working toward eventually completing a book. His work was still in progress at his passing.”
Mr. Rodgers flew single-engine planes in the late 1970s as a hobby. He was also an ocean swimmer and golfer. He played guitar, built vintage aircraft models, and attended Johnny Cash, Moody Blues and Gordon Lightfoot concerts.
He had no use for GPS technology. He plotted long drives using printed maps and writing down directions ahead of time.
Survivors include his wife of 44 years, Margaret Brister Rodgers; a son, Adam Rodgers, of Ellicott City; two stepsons, Charles Greenman, of Garnet Valley, Pennsylvania, and Thomas Greenman, of Brooklyn, New York; three grandchildren; and four step-grandchildren.
A son, Jared Rodgers, died in 2017.
Funeral services were private.
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