I don’t know how long I have known Roger Green. I can recall when my boys were in middle
school, and that seems a long time ago, so maybe that is where we first met. We had crossed paths here and there, but
perhaps it has been the past five years or so that I really had a chance to get
to know him.
After he retired, he was weighing a decision on whether to
take the position with the Chamber of Commerce. Not that I had any input in the
decision, but to me it seemed like the perfect fit. I knew Roger to be a dedicated, hard worker,
and able to remain focused on more than one thing at a time. The Chamber, as it turns out, was a perfect
fit.
It seems to me that Roger was at his best when he was in a
position to help others. He seemed to
always be there when he was needed. I remember working with him during the
potato drops at Wesley United Methodist church. While most people were bagging
the potatoes into five pound bags to send to the feeding programs in the
Tri-Cities, Roger grabbed a wheelbarrow and started making the rounds. He would pick up bags from all of the
volunteers and transport them to the areas of the parking lot where other
volunteers were setting up the orders.
And when I think of Roger, that’s how I like to remember
him. He was totally involved in the event, and took on the hardest task. It may
not seem hard, but when you work at a table the job is pretty stationary. When you run a wheelbarrow the job is
constant movement. I remember talking with him about it the first time he did
it. He said he didn’t realize how much effort went into working that part of
the job. And yet, next year, there he was again wheeling the wheelbarrow.
On the personal side, I have always been the kind of person
who just went about his normal business.
Other than my job as a writer, I try to just take care of my own
business. So, I am not really sure why
Roger offered to help me try to work on my photography side business. I guess he just wanted to see people
succeed. On the other hand, what I was
doing with photography, while it may not make me wealthy, fits in with what I
like to do.
We never did get to sit down and work out a plan for getting
that aspect of my life going better. But then, that’s more my fault than it is
anything else. I appreciated how he worked with me and allowed me to shoot the
Chamber dinner every year. And that is one thing that I will probably miss when
the spring comes around again.
But more than that, I will miss a friend. We served together
for a short time on the Colonial Heights Food Pantry Board. He was a constant
in that world, too. When we tried to
develop different ideas, his input was instrumental in getting us on the right
track and keeping us there.
His passing is an enormous loss for the city; and I can’t
imagine how his wife, Robyn, and children, Zac and Kathryn are handling it.
Certainly, in my estimation, Roger is a man and a Christian
whose life stands as an example for the rest of us sinners.
