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Reprinted
from The Daily News, February 18, 2001
Laurel Hill man is a big hit with neighbors
By MICHAEL STEWART, Daily News Staff Writer
LAUREL HILL - A former athlete, teacher, coach and administrator, Morris H. Rogers has touched a lot of lives.
According to those who know him, Morris is the kind of man who remembers the simple things, like cutting a load of firewood this past
winter and delivering it to a woman whose husband had just died.
On Feb. 10, the community turned out en masse at the Laurel Hill School cafeteria to honor Rogers as the "Laurel Hill Citizen of the
Year."
The award is a big deal in this small community. Residents, church members and business owners chipped in to provide gifts, food and
drink for the occasion.
Rogers was presented with a plaque and a key to the city after hitching a ride in on the city's fire engine.
Many of Rogers' classmates from his graduating "Class of 1941" showed up for the ceremony, as did a former student who made the trip from
South Carolina to honor his former teacher.
Each year, residents send in nominations for a citizen to be honored for "unselfish giving, beyond the usual, for the community-wide good
of all," Councilwoman Estelle Rogers said.
Morris Rogers, the first cousin of Estelle Rogers' husband, is by all accounts a natural selection for the award.
If there is a funeral in the community, he is there to offer his support and assistance. When he's not helping one of the elderly
members of the community with some project, residents say they might find him fishing with one of his grandchildren.
"He's just an all-around great guy," Estelle Rogers said.
An avid outdoorsman, Morris is independent and, at 77, balks at carrying his cell phone with him when he's tromping through the woods.
Family members gave the phone to him after a tree fell on his leg during one foray into the wilderness.
Rogers' service to his community is not just recent history. Friends and family say you have to go a long way back to know the man they
admire.
Born in Nichols, Ga., Rogers moved to Laurel Hill in 1932 when he was 9 years old. The town, a bustling lumber
community at that time, was somewhat busier than today.
Rogers, whose father was a farmer, wanted to teach agriculture when he got out of high school. He spent three years in the Air Corps during
World War II, where he honed his skills in softball and basketball.
He played for a semi-pro baseball team in Okaloosa County before earning his master's degree in physical education and administration
from the University of Florida, where he lettered in baseball.
After graduating, he coached at schools all across the county before accepting the position of principal at Laurel Hill School in 1960.
He served as the county's assistant superintendent of schools for a year in 1962, but went back to his old job at Laurel Hill until
retiring in July 1979.
It is those days that former students remember most, when Rogers would spend his off-hours driving his pupils to their athletic competitions
in a school bus.
He helped out coaching, without pay, and to this day his familiar face can be found among the crowd at local ball games.
When he retired, his students dedicated the school's annual yearbook, the "Laurelian" to their principal.
"Since Mr. Rogers became principal, Laurel Hill has advanced tremendously," they wrote. "He has always been ready to listen and
help any problem a student has and is very devoted to his work."
Since retiring, the honors have kept piling up. He was inducted into the Florida High School Activities Association Hall of Fame in 1995,
and was presented the Lance C. Richbourg Community Volunteer Award last year by the Crestview 100 Club.
The boards and organizations in which he is still active would fill a book. But Rogers is not one to talk about his honors. Others have to
do it for him. But one gets the sense that his life has been full.
"I would do everything over again the same way," he said. "I have enjoyed every minute."
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