Ray Rogers: Giving Something Back
This article describes the life and career of alumnus Ray Rogers. This and other articles may be found in the University Archives.
Citation for this article is: Askew, Susan. "Ray Rogers: Giving Something Back," ECU Report, December 1994, Volume 25, No. 4.
Ray Rogers '72 considers himself a fortunate man.He is a vice president of Triangle East Bank in Greenville, he enjoys family life with his wife and daughter, and he's made some other people's lives a little better.
"I was given a lot of opportunities through the years," Rogers said."Because of that, I need to give something back.
"I am not a superstar or a rocket scientist, but with a lot of hard work and some blessings along the way, I was able to succeed.I want people to know that life is not just one obstacle after another; life is full of opportunities to grow."
Rogers, 48, grew up on a small family farm in Martin County at a time when farm children frequently stayed home to help work. He attended high school in the early sixties, a turbulent time in the Civil Rights Movement. And he entered East Carolina College in 1964, just one year after Laura Marie Leary '66 became the first full-time black student to be enrolled in a regular session.
When Rogers talks about those days, it is with his usual my-cup-is-half-full-not-half-empty attitude.
"Growing up, I had a tremendous network of support in my family and in my community," he said. "I went to school and church with the same people and was raised by the whole community."
Regardless of the workload on the Rogers farm, his parents sent him to school every day, insisting that he study hard and do his best.Through high school, teachers expressed continued interest in his success, while classmates encouraged each other academically through a spirit of good-natured competition.
Rogers chose East Carolina over N.C. Central and N.C. A&T because of a scholarship opportunity, the school's proximity to home, and a challenge from a high school counselor.
"The year I started at East Carolina there were only 16 black students on campus -- period," Rogers said. "We had to jell as a group and support each other. We did sometimes run into some obstacles that were not pleasant, although not nearly as many as we expected. But we also found a very positive and responsive administration.We were visited by President Leo Jenkins as we arrived in our dorm rooms that first day."
Rogers held a series of campus jobs throughout his college years and, despite his full schedule, participated in extracurricular activities.
He worked in the biology department's greenhouse behind Flanagan (biology was his first intended major) and as a stagehand in Messick Theatre. As an upperclassman Rogers and a fellow student, Valeria Oliver Lovelace '73 (today a member of the ECU Board of Trustees), worked in the counseling center with Dr. Wilbert Ball, who is now the center's director.
"We hired Ray and Valeria to provide peer counseling. Understandably, some of the African-American students were having difficulties making the transition to a predominantly white school," Ball said. "Both Ray and Valeria were delightful. I really feel their work in our office prevented some students from leaving school early," he said.
After he changed his major from biology to finance, Rogers also worked at night as an edit clerk at Wachovia's operations center.
Rogers also was a member of the Society of United Liberal Students (SOULS), established to serve as an agent of the various minority groups on campus.SOULS sponsored Black History Week, was responsible for the election of Linda McLamb '72 as the first black homecoming queen, and later helped establish the Ledonia S. Wright Afro-American Cultural Center, named for a popular professor who had served as faculty advisor to SOULS.
Rogers's tenure at East Carolina was interrupted after two years by a stint in the military.
"It was the middle of the Viet Nam conflict," he said, "and my draft status was in the process of being changed to one of a higher draft risk.So with two years of college ROTC, I volunteered for the Air Force, served four years, then came back to school to finish my degree.
"I got a darn good education at East Carolina University and I'm real proud of it," he said.
Rogers graduated in 1972 with a business administration degree, but not before he met and fell in love with Eve, the former Everlena Clark '69 of Greenville.
The two met in the old Crow's Nest. Rogers had returned to school from the military; Eve had graduated and was working as a social worker. They began dating in June 1971 and were married the next year. Their daughter, Adeea, was born in December 1975.
Today, Eve Rogers is Pitt County's chief counselor for the juvenile court system and Adeea is a freshman at UNC-Chapel Hill. Rogers said his family continues to be a source of pride for him, but admits that sometimes his fatherly advice backfires.
"I've always taught my daughter to make her own decisions -- based on research and facts. That's how my parents taught me," he said."So when she chose UNC, I didn't have a choice. And when she opened her first checking account at a competing bank, what could I say? They were giving away free T-shirts."
Rogers entered the retail lending program at Wachovia when he was fresh out of college. He worked his way up to branch manager, to assistant vice president, and finally was transferred to New Bern where he was retail banking manager in charge of branch operations.
In 1990 Rogers accepted an offer from New East Bank (now Triangle East Bank), which was opening in Greenville.
"It was something I wanted careerwise, and it was also very important that I bring my family back to Greenville. It was a golden opportunity," he said.
"I'm committed to eastern North Carolina," he said. "East Carolina, Greenville and Pitt County have been extremely good to me. They've given me a good career, I found my wife here and raised my child here. So when I see a way to contribute, I'm ready to try."
A deacon at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Greenville, he is also the church's financial adviser and a member of the budget and finance committee. He has worked with the Chamber of Commerce and is secretary of the Board of Trustees of Pitt County Memorial Hospital.
Rogers is involved in the alumni chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, East Carolina's first black fraternity.His brother-in-law, John B. Clark, became the fraternity's first president when it was chartered in 1971. Alpha Phi Alpha sponsors a scholarship program and participates in a leadership development program for high school sophomores and juniors.
In 1975 Rogers helped establish the Bankers Educational Society, a statewide network of minority bankers organized for the exchange of ideas and information.
From 16 original members, the group soon grew into a statewide organization. With Rogers as president, the group merged into the National Association of Urban Bankers, becoming the North Carolina affiliate.
Through that organization Rogers is helping to establish a mentoring program in ECU's School of Business. The program pairs African-American students majoring in finance with area bankers in a one-on-one relationship.
Other aspects of the program include holding workshops on such topics as resume preparation and interview skills, and a public speaking competition that is in the planning stage. Student participants will research a banking topic, write a paper and present it to a panel of judges composed of eastern North Carolina bankers.
Last summer, in another ECU outreach project, Rogers participated in a program sponsored by the office of Minority Student Affairs at the medical school and at the main campus.
The university hosted a group of inner-city Atlanta youths for a weeklong leadership development seminar for which Rogers led a workshop. The participants had been selected by the One Hundred Black Men of Atlanta organization of successful African-American men who serve as mentors for at-risk inner-city youngsters and provide college scholarships for the successful program participants.
"I interacted with some extremely bright kids -- kids who will either be tomorrow's leaders or tomorrow's super trouble-makers.But they're worth the risk," he said.
Rogers's latest endeavor has been to breathe new life into the ECU Black Alumni Chapter.The group was established in the early eighties and operated under the leadership of Dennis Chestnut '69, Jacqueline Hawkins '74 and Barbara Hines '76.
The first order of business, Rogers said, is "to build a database of names to contact for recommitment to the chapter."
"I think we probably have an awful lot of alumni who interact daily and don't even realize they have this common bond," Rogers said. "We need to reach out and say 'You spent four years of your life here. Come on home.'"
