Background
Rogers, Lorene Lane was born on April 3, 1914 in Prosper, Texas, United States. Daughter of Mort M. and Jessie L. (Luster) Lane.
Rogers, Lorene Lane was born on April 3, 1914 in Prosper, Texas, United States. Daughter of Mort M. and Jessie L. (Luster) Lane.
Bachelor of Arts, N. Texas State College, 1934; Master of Arts (Parke, Davis fellow), University Texas, 1946; Doctor of Philosophy, University Texas, 1948; Honorary Doctor of Science, Oakland U., 1972; honorary Doctor of Laws, Austin College, 1977.
Born on April 3, 1914 in Prosper, Texas as Lorene Lane, she was awarded a bachelor"s degree from North Texas State Teachers College (now the University of North Texas), majoring in English. After graduating from North Texas, Rogers became a school teacher. Her husband, Burl Rogers, was a chemistry
Around that time, he accepted a job from a chemical company, General Aniline Works, in Linden, New Jersey, where, in 1941, he died from injuries of a laboratory explosion.
At a time when biochemistry was a "field dominated by men", Rogers decided to follow in her husband"s footsteps, figuring that "if he liked chemistry so well, that she wanted to pursue it also." She earned a master"s degree and a doctoral degree in biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin and taught at Sam Houston State College (now Sam Houston State University) before returning to Austin, Texas. She had been a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, but her application in 1962 for a teaching position was rejected, despite the fact that she had already taught courses in the chemistry department.
She ultimately was given a position as a professor of nutrition in the university"s home economics department, before becoming a full professor, assistant director of a biochemical institute, associate dean of graduate studies and vice president She was named as interim president of the University in September 1974, succeeding Doctor Stephen H. Spurr, who had just been dismissed after becoming the school"s fifth president in a six-year period.
She became president in 1975, and was variously described as the first woman to be president of a major state university or was believed to be the first.
Faculty members were critical of the appointment, claiming that they should have been involved in the selection process, and protest rallies were conducted by faculty and students demanding that she resign. President Rogers and the Board of Regents were the target of a 1975 lawsuit filed by Philip L. White and seven other Utah Austin professors, who claimed that they had been denied raises as part of an effort to stifle their dissent, in violation of the First Amendment rights. She served as president of the university until 1979.
In a 1975 profile, she described how she had "never been one who pushed ahead and scratched the walls trying to climb my way up".
She stated that "I had no plans or ambitions to become a career woman. William C. Powers, president of The University of Texas at Austin at the time of her death, described how she was "the first and only woman to serve as president of the university, a position she accepted under difficult circumstances.
She was not afraid to make tough decisions."
Rogers served as a director of Texaco starting in 1976, serving until 1989. Rogers died at age 94 on January 11, 2009 of natural causes in Dallas.
Board directors Texas Opera Theatre, Austin Lyric Opera. Chairman board trustees Texaco Philanthropic Foundation. Chairman council of presidents National Association State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, 1976-1977, member executive committee, 1976-1979.
Member committee on identification of professional women American Council on Education, 1975-1979, member committee on government relations, 1978-1979. Member target 2000 project committee Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University System. Member educational advisory board John E. Gray Institute, Lamar University, Beaumont, Texas.
Fellow American Institute Chemists. Member American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Chemical Society (secretary 1954-1956), American Institute Nutrition, American Society Human Genetics, National Society Arts and Letters, Association Graduate Schools (international education committee 1967-1971), Sigma Xi, Phi Kappa Phi, Iota Sigma Pi, Omicron Delta Kappa.
Married Burl Gordon Rogers, August 23, 1935 (deceased June 14, 1941).