Jon B. Rogers ’54

Jon died May 17, 2022. 

At Wayland Academy he participated in football, swimming, and track. An economics major at Princeton, his senior thesis was on “Collective Bargaining in the Airlines.” He joined Cannon Club, continued to play football, swimming, and track, and added hockey to his repertoire. He cherished the foundation built at Princeton. 

He married Barbara Rosborough in 1955 during his three years of service as an officer in the Army. After a successful career in various consumer-product companies in New York, Jon moved his family west, where he purchased a small coffee-roasting company, the San Francisco Bay Coffee Co. Jon, Barbara, and their four children then built a highly successful privately held family business, sourcing, roasting, and marketing fair trade coffee as the Rogers Family Co. Family members visit and buy directly from the farmers in Central and South America and invest in improving the quality of life in the farm communities. Jon’s daughter Lisa, along with sons James and John, now runs the company for the second generation with members of the third generation learning the ropes.

Jon is survived by his wife of 67 years, Barbara; children Jim and Suzanne Rogers, Paul and Lisa Rogers Smoot, John and Nicole Rogers, and Peter and Kirsten Rogers; 15 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.