Douglas Cooper Rogers
Douglas Cooper Rogers, 73, passed away at home surrounded by his family on November 13, 2023.
Doug was born on May 12, 1950, in Cedar City, Utah, to William Edward Rogers & Gwendolyn Bushman Rogers. He was the youngest of 6 boys. At the tender age of 6, his mom passed away. After living all over the country, Doug returned to Southern Utah. He was blessed to live with Montrue Larkin, so he could attend and graduate from Dixie High School in 1968.
He married his sweetheart, Rosalee Cox, on September 18, 1970, and they were later sealed in the St. George, Utah LDS Temple on November 20, 1971. In 1973, they moved into their home on 750 South in St. George, near Dixie High School, and they have lived there for the past 50 years…the best neighborhood ever! They were married for 53 years, raised 7 children, and are blessed to have 30 grandchildren, and 5 great-grandchildren.
Doug began his construction career as a plumber for Larkin Plumbing, then started his own underground construction company, Apex Construction. He then transitioned into property development. Doug spent a lot of time in service to his community and his church. He received an award from Washington County School District for his work on the ball fields at Dixie High School. He was also an Assistant Coach for the High School Girls Softball Team and received a lifetime family pass to Dixie High School Sports. He also served as an Assistant Coach for Dixie State University Women’s Softball Team, throwing batting practice for over a decade. He received the Volunteer Award from Dixie State University. Doug has served as a Bishop, on the Stake High Council, as a Stake Young Men’s President, and Elders Quorum President. He said his hardest calling was Nursery Leader.
Family was everything to Doug. He loved spending time with his family. He looked up to and admired his brothers and their spouses and adored his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Doug loved fishing, hunting, softball, golfing, and traveling. His love for Diet Coke lasted until the end!
He is survived by his wife, Rosalee Rogers, children, Greg Rogers (Becky), Brian Rogers (Louise), Neal Rogers (Arynne), Robyn Seely (Colby), Scott Rogers (Amanda), Elise Livingston (Mason), Kristi Johnson (Garrett), brothers, Richard Rogers, Bruce Rogers, and John Rogers. Doug is preceded in death by brothers, Clair W. Rogers, William G. Rogers, and granddaughter, Kayleigh Anne Johnson.
Funeral services will be held Saturday, November 18, 2023, 11:00 am at the LDS meetinghouse, 550 East 700 South, St. George, Utah.
Viewings will be held for family and friends on Friday, November 17, 2023, from 5:00-7:00 pm at Spilsbury Mortuary, 110 South Bluff Street, St. George, Utah, and Saturday from 9:30-10:30 am, prior to the funeral service at the LDS meetinghouse.
Interment will take place at the St. George City Cemetery.
The family would like to express their gratitude to the staff at St. George Hospital and IHC Hospice for all their compassionate service.
Arrangements are made under the direction of Spilsbury Mortuary, 110 S. Bluff Street, St. George, Utah, 435-673-2454. Family and friends are invited to sign Doug’s online guest book at www.spilsburymortuary.com
DIXIE STATE SOFTBALL
Stubborn love
Rogers overcomes brush with death to return to family, softball dugout
By Garrett Faylor
ST. GEORGE — Spend five minutes with Doug Rogers and you’re sure to hear all about Dixie State softball. A caution, however: Thinking he’ll let you off the hook in just five minutes is a terrible, terrible mistake.
He’ll talk about upcoming wedding dates for past players, GPAs of current players and future signees as many as four years away.
One thing the assistant coach won’t talk about, though, is himself.
Rogers has spent 13 years as an assistant, a live-battingpractice pitcher, a clubhouse builder, an honorary “grandpa” to the young women of the softball team, a volunteer and many other things he’d cringe at taking credit for.
“This year the college gave me an award, Outstanding Volunteer or something,” Rogers said. “Those kind of things are tough. That’s not what I’m here for.“ As part of head coach Randy Simkins’ staff, Rogers also won his second National Fastpitch Coaches Association’s Coaching Staff of the Year award.
And what a year it’s been.
The Red Storm softball team finished its 51-10 season, culminating in a pair of wins at the NCAA Division II Softball World Series in Salem, Virginia — a season made all the more savory by the fact that last August Rogers lied on a hospital bed, shocked 37 times before being brought back to life.
“I asked the heart surgeon, ‘Is that a record?’ and he said, ‘You were shocked many times more than anybody that’s ever survived,’” Rogers recounted.
While working around a ditch filled with swamp water near Pine View High, Rogers became the first person in the state to contract West Nile virus — him, and a horse, he added lightly. It’s likely a mosquito bit Rogers, but he doesn’t remember it. “It was like having the worst flu you’ve ever had times about five,” he said. “You hurt from top to bottom. Very shortly after I was admitted, I got to a point where the thing that I just couldn’t wait for was every two hours they’d give you a morphine shot for the pain.”
The West Nile virus turned into meningitis. Then just four days later, Rogers, who had had two stents put in his heart in 1995, suffered a heart attack and a subsequent six-way bypass surgery.
“When I got done, the doctor asked me, ‘You’ve got something you really want to get back to, don’t you?’” Rogers recalled. “I said, ‘Yeah. I do. My family and 18 softball players.’” But, according to Simkins, “softball players” is redundant.
“He’s embraced this team,” Simkins said. “As soon as they show up on campus, they’re like one of his daughters.”
So, of course, surviving a week of West Nile virus, a heart attack and a six-way bypass was not enough for Rogers. What mattered most was getting back to his family, both on and off the field, and the game he loved.
“My dear wife was right there with me the whole time, hardly ever left the hospital,” said Rogers, who lost 40 pounds between his bout with West Nile virus and the heart surgery.
“When he first came back, he couldn’t throw very many pitches, and he was a lot slower than he is right now,” junior first baseman Sheila Gelter said. “He was hurting after every practice. It probably took him a solid month before he could throw to our entire team and be OK.
“I think he has such a love for the game, and I think he has such a huge heart, especially for us girls. He has such a great relationship with us that I think it meant so much to him.”
Rogers slowly worked back into form. And as important as his presence in the dugout was to the team’s morale, his arm was to the team’s batting average.
See ROGERS, Page B3
Dixie State University assistant softball coach Doug Rogers holds a softball signed by members of the 2014 softball team, his “granddaughters,’ Thursday. JUD BURKETT / THE SPECTRUM & DAILY NEWS
Rogers
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“We don’t lead the country in hitting if we don’t have Doug because he gives us those live atbats,” Simkins said. “He’ll throw it in a spot and say, ‘OK, you need to work on hitting the ball the other way, so let’s work on that outside pitch,’ and he’s pretty consistent; he can throw it there and let the kids work on their swing. That’s an invaluable asset to have on a staff.”
Rogers’ story is remarkable on many different levels. But as he would tell it, he’s not much different than the 50 or so other Dixie State volunteers that work quietly behind the scenes in various capacities.
“I think they love just being involved and being at the games, being there and being a part of it, and I don’t know what they’ve done professionally prior, but I just think it’s a way for them to stay active and involved and associate themselves with a good thing,” said DSU athletic director Jason Boothe. “We’re just very grateful.”
But it’s a two-way street, suggests Rogers, citing the welcome party awaiting the softball team returning from the World Series as one example.
“The girls were tired, they were ready to get home, but every one of them took the time to go give every person in that group a hug and tell them thank you,” he said.
“When we came home from the World Series, as soon as we got off the bus, they were all there with balloons, telling us ‘thank you,’” Gelter said of the volunteers. “I think they’re probably our biggest support and our biggest drive really.”
There are many volunteers that help out at the local high schools and universities. Then there are many more who help those that do volunteer. For Rogers, it’s his wife, allowing him to spend time away; it’s Kent Garrett, a volunteer at Dixie High of whom Rogers says, “I don’t know if I could ever work hard enough or long enough to keep up with Kent Garrett;” it’s Dennis Miller, who helped build the softball clubhouse; it’s Vern Law, a Cy Young award winner for the Pittsburgh Pirates, who encouraged Rogers to pitch batting practice — as he did for the BYU baseball team — and do it as long as he could.
And perhaps there are a whole lot more people, just like Rogers, who would balk at the idea of receiving recognition.
In their minds, the work is its own reward.
“If I can make a difference in somebody’s life or a program or something like that and do it very quietly and almost confidentially, that’s what I’m after,” Rogers said. “You go help people and bless other people’s lives, and you’ll be fine. That’s what I’ve tried to base my life on. Those are the things that keep you going.”
@G_Faylor
Assistant coach Doug Rogers throws batting practice to Dixie State softball players at James I. Moyer complex in Salem, Virginia, before their final game of the NCAA Division II Softball World Series against West Texas A&M May 25. GARRETT FAYLOR / THE SPECTRUM & DAILY NEWS