University of California Seal

IN MEMORIAM

Thomas Alvin Rogers

Professor of Engineering, Emeritus

Los Angeles

1906—2004

 

 

Thomas Rogers, a member of the founding faculty for the engineering program at UCLA, died at his home in Morro Bay on May 13, 2004. He was born in Mountain View, California on June 29, 1905. After earning a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at UC Berkeley in 1935, he became an instructor in electrical engineering from 1933 to 1938. Rogers then resigned to work at Shell Oil Company and Lockheed. He returned to the University of California as a supervisor in the Engineering, Science, Management War Training Program in 1944.

 

In 1945, Rogers joined Dean L.M.K. Boelter to build the Unified Engineering program at UCLA. He was promoted to professor in 1950, and in 1953 he was also appointed as assistant dean for graduate studies. Rogers retired in 1970.

 

Rogers developed undergraduate, graduate and extension courses and laboratories for the emerging fields of servomechanism, analogue computers and digital controlled machine tools. He also organized the innovative off-campus graduate programs that were offered in San Diego, Orange County, Los Alamos Laboratories in New Mexico and Sacramento.

 

He pursued his hobbies with passion. They were model railroads, oenology and computers.

 

He is survived by two children, Peter Rogers, of Hesperia and Robin Young of El Segundo, two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Marcia, his wife of 54 years, preceded him in death.

 

 

Russell R. O’Neill