retrorewind
Hidden but not Forgotten A portrait of Edmund Meany By Tiffany Ban, Communications Associate
George Rogers picking up the portrait of Edmund Meany from our Program Center.
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n 1953, George Rogers stood atop the stunning Mount Olympus with a group of fellow climbers from The Mountaineers. At the time George knew his family history was deeply intertwined with the club, but he had no idea just how much until, 67 years later, he saw a Retro Rewind piece in Mountaineer magazine entitled “An Olympic Summer, 100 Years Ago.” A sentence caught his eye – “The most summits by a single member was eight, completed by Phillip Rogers, Jr.” His first thought was, “Could that be my dad?” He started digging. He wanted to find out just how deep his family ties were to The Mountaineers. George reached out to Lowell Skoog, the Chair of The Mountaineers History Committee. Lowell mentioned The Mountaineers, A History by Jim Kjeldsen and sent him a link to The Mountaineer Annuals, released from 1907 through 1994. George was delighted with the wealth of information. As it turns out, the Phillip Jr. that stood on top of eight peaks in 1920 was George’s father. Not only that, his maternal grandfather George Wright was chairman of the outing, accompanied by his daughters Elizabeth and Annah, the latter of whom would one day be George’s mother. George’s paternal grandfather had also attended a summer outing in 1915, cementing a family legacy of Mountaineers involvement on both sides. How George’s father and paternal grandfather became involved with The Mountaineers is still a mystery, as both Phillip Jr. and Phillip Sr. were living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He may never
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mountaineer | summer 2021
know how his father’s side connected with the organization, but he likes to believe this fated trip led to his very existence. To put it another way, the climb was destiny.
A family of Mountaineers Raised in Milwaukee, George’s dad Phillip Meinhardt Rogers (Phillip Jr.) attended the University of Wisconsin before continuing on to Yale Medical School. Following his academic success, he was ready for a new adventure – and he longed for it to be in the Pacific Northwest. Hoping to deter him, his father Phillip Sr. convinced the Dean at Yale to talk with his son. The Dean reported back that Philip Jr. “could have any position he wants on the east coast, but he is determined to go out to the ‘boonies of the northwest.’” He had fallen in love on that 1920 trip, and there was no going back. Phillip Jr. made the move and soon officially joined The Mountaineers. He was a member of our 1922 annual trip, which was slated to go to Mount Adams, Mount St. Helens, and the Goat Rocks region. Once again, he was able to convince his father Phillip Sr., as well as his sister, to join in the fun. Everyone had a grand time exploring the Pacific Northwest. As fate would have it, George’s mother, Annah was also on the 1922 trip with her sister and father, George Wright. One can only imagine what happened next, but suffice to say Phillip Jr. met Annah again on that trip and they were married four years later, in 1926. Phillip Jr. continued to work as a doctor and satisfied
