Hudson - Litchfield News 10 - March 25, 2011
Phil Rodgers Tribute- continued from front page
and filling station near their home from the early 1930s to late 1940s. “My parents were hard-working people,” Phil modestly shared in a Hudson~Litchfield News 2007 interview. “Dad was a ‘wop changer’ [skilled millworker, changed huge rolls of thread] in the Jackson Mills [Nashua], where he worked 50 hours a week for $20.” As the mills waned around World War II, George worked as a trained mechanic for $1 an hour at Fort Devens. Known for her Yankee ingenuity, optimism, and sage advice, Ella was always “very busy with family, the shop, gardening, and crafts.” Both were active in the Hudson Lions Club, Hudson Grange #11, and St. John’s Church. “In the late ‘40s, our family moved to
Central Street and bought some $4-a-week rental properties near the bridge and Baker Block,” shared Phil. “Al and I learned how to do, fix, and build most anything from Dad.” “Dad had an incredibly strong work ethic and deep commitment to family and community, which he inherited from his parents and passed along, as we have passed it on to our children and grandchildren,” shared his eldest daughter, Susan Gendron, in an emotional family interview last Sunday morning. “Work was his hobby.” “’Everything will be OK’ was what he always told me, and he was right; it always has been and always will be because we will be eternally linked to him and his values.” Phil started as an entrepreneur at the tender
age of seven, selling pencils and graduating to water boy at 10 cents a day for a neighboring farmer, George Steel. As a young man, he worked at the Nashua Foundry, a Hungarian bakery, and as a cook before launching Rodgers Brothers Construction in 1956 with his brother, Al. For the next half-century, the name Rodgers – through businesses including Rodgers Brothers Construction, Autoland, PAK, Concrete Systems, Liberty Millworks, Rodgers Realty, and McKenna’s Purchase – employed hundreds and dominated the local construction and realty market, as they built about 2,500 area homes and many commercial properties. “We primarily aimed to build good homes at reasonable prices that families could afford,” Phil humbly detailed in 2007. Their earliest homes were on Birchcroft (behind T-Bones) and sold for $12,800 in the 1950s;
Phil Rodgers with wife Marion
Phil Rodgers speaks at the Rodgers Memorial Library, which he and his brother donated to the town of Hudson
most are now worth more than a quarter- million dollars.
A former Hudson real estate agent offered,
“A Rodgers Brothers home was always the home of choice. They were famous for high- quality craftsmanship.” “Being the oldest, I always knew Phil was
boss,” quietly admitted Al. “We always got along well because he did his job running the business office, buying, and planning, while I did my job doing the design work and field construction.” Last Thursday, Al tragically lost his “best friend, brother, and partner.” His oldest son, Dana, shared that his Dad
Many in our community will remember the Rodgers Brothers’ work shirts from around town
was renowned as a sharp “numbers man” and wore his dark, khaki-green work uniform with the red embroidered “Rodgers Brothers Builders” for years after he worked job sites. Withholding tears, he quietly said, “Dad made me stronger.” Son-in-law and long-time employee Steve Middlemiss shared that Phil exemplified “a man’s word was his bond,” and revealed he was “humble” and never sought “pats on the back; a handshake was his word.” Phil was also dedicated to family. At 19, he married Barbara Haight, with whom he had five children—Susan, Cheryl, Dana, LeeAnn, and Todd. They were married and lived in Hudson for 46 years. “I have nothing but good memories,” recalled LeeAnn. “Dad taught us so much about faith, family, and respect. He gave us all so much.” Recently, Phil split his time equally between hometown Hudson and Cape Coral, FL, where he loved the scenic harbor view. After dating eight years, he married his life-long friend and “soul-mate,” Marion
(Shepherd) Bouley, on
August 23, 2009, aptly at the new Rodgers Memorial Library. Most Saturdays, Phil pursued his passion for yard sales. Like many raised during the depression, he was a frugal “bargain and trade man” and had a keen eye for usable stuff. “He just loved people and fed off bartering and flipping,” shared Marion. “He especially liked yard sales at houses that he had built decades before, where homeowners often exuberantly welcomed him.” Through his contributions and public offices, Phil respectfully lived the Lion’s Club motto, “We Serve,” as detailed in the part two. He lived for his family, community, and work, and instilled those maxims into his five children and many grandchildren, nephews, and nieces— many whom are an integral part of Hudson today.
While his most recent and biggest donation was the new Rodgers Memorial Library, Phil had been involved in the library building committee in 1980, when a new library first appeared on the Hudson ballot. “As a proud Hudson citizen all of my life, this is something I’ve long dreamed of,” stated Phil four years ago when the brothers pledged “to give back” and “create a lasting gift to honor our parents.” He concluded, “In my younger days, I never gave much thought to how much my parents did or how important they were to me and others. We often don’t appreciate the people we love until they are gone.”
IF
If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you But make allowance for their doubting too, If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream - and not make dreams your master, If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools: If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breath a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!” If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; If all men count with you, but none too much, If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!
Rudyard Kipling, 1909
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Daniel Tran to Represent HMS at NH Geographic Bee
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Daniel Tran, a sixth-grade student at Hudson Memorial School, has been notified by the National Geographic Society that he is one of the semifinalists eligible to compete in the 2011 New Hampshire Geographic Bee, sponsored by Google and Plum Creek. Bees were held in schools with fourth- through eighth-grade students throughout the state to determine each school’s Geographic Bee winner. School-level winners then took a qualifying test, which they submitted to the National Geographic Society. In each of the 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense Dependents Schools, and the U.S. territories, the National Geographic Society invited the students with the top 100 scores to compete at the state level. The 2011 New Hampshire Geographic Bee will be held at the Lloyd Young Student Center, Keene State College, on Friday, April 1.
Hudson Memorial School’s Geographic Bee winners: third place,
Anna Michaud, seventh grade; second place, Nathan Tracey, eighth grade; and first-place winner, Daniel Tran, sixth grade
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31 W Hollis St (603) 883-7739
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