John Blake Rodgers ’41 died on February 15, 2004, in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.

Born on March 14, 1918, in Melrose, MA, he prepared for college at Melrose High School and Loomis Institute in Connecticut and became a member of Sigma Nu Fraternity at Bowdoin. Following his graduation in 1941, he became a salesman with Lever Bros. Company in Cambridge, MA, and then served as a medic in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1946 during World War II, attaining the rank of staff sergeant. After the war, he was the part owner and manager of Tool Supply of New England. He later joined Deluye Filter Company in Boston as a salesman. From 1954 to 1956, he was the New England representative of Cyclone Filter of Denver, CO, and ,from 1956 until his retirement, he was affiliated with Genalco, Inc., in Needham, MA, with which he became vice president of customer service. In Lynnfield, MA, he was one of the original members of the Little League Governing Board, a member of a number of town committees, the Ipswich River Watershed Committee, and the Republican Town Committee. He was also a member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Lynnfield, the Lynnfield Lions Club, the British Charitable Society, and the local lodge of Masons, as well as a member of the Massachusetts Water Works Association. Surviving are his wife, Barbara Smith Rodgers, whom he married in 1942; two daughters, Sally R. Tracy of Bolton, CT, and Jane Rodgers of Chelmsford; a son, Stead W. Rodgers, III of Tucson, AZ; two brothers, Stead W. Rodgers of Hingham, MA, and James Leatherbee of Fairhope, AL; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.