DAVID G. RODGER, ENS, USN
David Rodger '40
David Gordon Rodger was admitted to the Naval Academy from New York on June 22, 1936 at age 20 years 0 months.
He resigned on May 25, 1937.
Lucky Bag
David Gordon Rodger is listed on the page titled “And Some We Knew.”
From the his 1934 high school yearbook, courtesy of the Rochester Public Library and Kathy Franz.
Loss
David was lost on August 19, 1943 when his plane crashed near Oglethorpe, Georgia.
Other Information
From Find A Grave:
David served as an Ensign in the U.S. Navy during World War II.
He resided at 51 Clay Avenue, Rochester, Monroe County, New York prior to the war.
He died of injuries suffered when his plane was forced to land at Oglethorpe, Ga. during the war.
One other officer aboard the training plane also died; a third survived.
He was survived by his wife and is buried in New York.
David is not listed in the 1941 edition of the "Commissioned Officers, Cadets, Midshipmen, and Warrant Officers of the United States Naval Reserve." In the January 1943 edition he is listed as an Ensign, A-VS, with a date of precedence of 9/18/42 and a date of birth of 6/16.
From researcher Kathy Franz:
He is buried next to his mother Helen. His father Louis was a CPA. David was born in Canada as was his sister Helen. David and his brother Louis worked for Eastman Kodak in 1940 in Rochester.
In 1930 David was a street carrier - perhaps newspaper carrier. He belonged to Boy Scout Troop 31 and earned merit and star badges in 1929. In 1933 he opened a December 17 radio broadcast as a member of the National Honor Society. He graduated from Monroe High School in June 1934 where he was President of the National Honor Society. In the previous yearbook, he was a Social Chairman of the Les Babillards, the French Honor Society.
He went to the University of Rochester for two years, and the attached article said he was an instructor at Oglethorpe University when he died. He was engaged to Barbara Barrows in February 1940. He took flight training in 1940 at Rochester.
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
