January 13, 1943 ~ June 21, 2026 (age 83)
Jack Wyndall Rogers, Jr., age 83, passed away peacefully at home in Auburn, Alabama, on Father’s Day, June 21, 2026. Jack was born January 13, 1943, in Austin, Texas, to Jack W. Rogers, Sr., and Dorothy Cuthbertson Rogers, while his father, a Captain in the U.S. Army Air Corps, was flying combat missions over North Africa. Jack started first grade in Japan, where his father was stationed at the time. He grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and Austin, Texas. Jack met and married Janet Shaw at the University of Texas, Austin, where they were both students, and where he earned his PhD in mathematics in 1966.
Jack first taught mathematics at Emory University in Atlanta. In 1973 he and Janet and their young family moved to Auburn, Alabama, where he joined the mathematics faculty at Auburn University, and where he taught until retiring as Professor Emeritus in 2007. During his tenure at Auburn he also served for eight years as Director of AU’s Honors College, and he directed Auburn’s NSF mathematics program for high school students for several summers.
Jack and Janet raised two children in Auburn, actively engaging in their education through books, museums, camping, the arts, and road trips to historical sites. He and Janet traveled together to mathematics conferences around the country and overseas, and Jack’s mathematics work occasionally took the family to temporary homes, in Redlands, CA, Princeton, NJ, Crofton, MD, and Huntsville, AL; but they always returned to Auburn.
Jack will be remembered for his calm, logical, diplomatic and good-natured approach to solving problems and finding solutions, whether mathematical or otherwise. He relished learning new things, exploring new places, and staying at the forefront of new technology and music. After retiring, he and Janet enjoyed traveling together on Road Scholar tours and participating in AU’s OLLI program.
Jack pursued many and varied hobbies over the years, from teaching himself guitar and oil painting to camping, backpacking and bicycling, chess and electronics, and often was in demand for his tech support and fix-it skills. To friends and family, Jack was known for his cameras and gadgets, his guitar and singing voice, and his mischievous sense of humor, as well as his love of puzzles and delight in challenging others to solve them. In later years, he enjoyed philosophizing with AU friends over weekly coffee, and he was proud to be a kid-certified “silly daddy/granddad.”
Through it all, photography was Jack’s lifelong passion. In addition to documenting the lives of his own extended family, he was for decades the unofficial photographer for Auburn’s math department family, preserving so many cherished memories for family and friends. He enjoyed capturing the beauty of the nature and art he encountered on his many adventures with Janet, his lifelong companion, wife, and best friend. He will be sorely missed.
Jack is survived by his wife, Janet Shaw Rogers of Auburn, Alabama; his brother Charles T. Rogers (Sue) of Houston, Texas; his children Carole Rogers Jensen (Tom) of Maple Grove, Minnesota, and David W. Rogers of Providence, Rhode Island; four grandchildren in Utah and Minnesota; and many cousins, nieces and nephews in Texas, Georgia and beyond. He was preceded in death by his parents and by his brother, William D. Rogers. Burial in a family plot in Austin will be arranged later. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Food Bank of East Alabama.
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