Harry Rogers

In the newspaper clipping shown, Harry Rogers was being commemorated and remembered after his tragic death. The paper details his work at Polytechnic University and the significance that he had on the institution. Harry Rogers was the president of the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn from 1933 all the way up until his sudden death in 1957. Under his leadership, enrollment at the school more than tripled, and he led the school to become one of the most prominent of science and engineering in the nation. 

Raised in Detroit, Rogers attended the University of Wyoming and went on to become an instructor of civil engineering at the Universities of Wyoming, Iowa, and Washington. In 1920 he was a professor of hydraulics and irrigation engineering at Oregon State College, and just 7 years later he became the Dean of Engineering. He also served as president of the American Society for Engineering Education (Oregon State College of Engineering). 

He was an incredibly devoted educator and civic leader, and his efforts were recognized in the naming of Rogers Hall. In 1957, Polytechnic University moved its campus to its modern day location on Jay Street. The mastermind behind the move, Harry Rogers, sadly passed that same year. In order to honor the former president, Polytechnic decided to name its principal building on the new campus after him. Unlike the other people honored with named buildings, Rogers never provided a donation to the university. Instead, his honoring occured due to a circumstantial coincidence. If he hadn't passed then, Polytechnic might've still named the building after him, being that he led the movement to develop it. However, Harry Rogers' passing at such a coindicental time helped to solidify the fact that he would receive the honor.