Orville Rogers obit

Orville Rogers, 101-year-old running sensation, passes away

The centenarian already holds multiple track and field records for his age group and was planning to pursue even more.

 

He was not on the list.

Orville Rogers, the retired Dallas-area pilot who late in life became a record-setting and world-renowned athlete, passed away in hospice care Thursday morning.

Members of Rogers' family confirmed the news to WFAA, where we have profiled his amazing exploits several times. 

Picking up running as a hobby well after his 50th birthday, the World War II and Korean War veteran who then spent a career as a commercial airline pilot for Braniff Airways decided to enter running competitions when he reached his 90s.

He held more than 18 records for his age group, some of them aired nationally on ESPN, and was planning to pursue even more. Recently he'd undergone heart valve replacement surgery, hoping that he would be able to compete in a future 800-meter competition. 

But Rogers' health quickly declined and his family told us that as recently as last week he was moved to hospice care.

“I did not seek fame, I did not seek long life, I did not seek riches," Rogers told us in an interview last year. "But God has blessed me with all three and I’m trying to live up to it.” 

Rogers would have celebrated his 102nd birthday later this month.

A Celebration of Life ceremony will be held on Monday, Nov. 25 at Historic Sanctuary First Baptist Church in Dallas. The ceremony is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. 

Rogers was born to Stephen Alfred Rogers and Lillie Leona Johnston at home in Hubbard, Texas. The family moved to Okemah, Oklahoma soon after. Orville's sister, Veva Jean, was born in 1922. After short stays in Oklahoma City and Edmond, Oklahoma, Stephen left, and Lillie moved her family back to Okemah to live with her parents, Rueben Jefferson Daniel Johnston and Mary Elizabeth Gilbreath. When Orville was 10, Rueben moved the family to Sulphur, Oklahoma. Lillie had five brothers, including William (Bill) Green Johnston and Ralph A. Johnston. Both found success in the oil industry. Orville graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Oklahoma in 1940, where he met his future wife, Esther Beth Shannon (class of 1941). Rogers was a veteran of WWII and the Korean War as a member of the U.S. Army Air Corps and U.S. Air Force, respectively.

Based in Dallas, Orville Rogers was a Braniff International Airways commercial pilot for more than three decades. He was hired by Braniff Airways, Inc., in 1945 and retired after 32 years of service in 1977. During the late 1960s, he flew the famed McDonnell-Douglas DC-8-62 Intercontinental four-engine jet over the company's vast route system between the US Mainland and South America. His favorite Braniff aircraft was the Boeing 727-200 Trijet airliner.

Braniff Airways Foundation awarded Mr. Rogers, its coveted Braniff Airways Foundation Hall of Fame Award. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in June 2017. In 2020, Braniff Airways Foundation will place Captain Rogers name along with the other Hall of Fame Recipients on a special plaque at The University of Texas at Dallas History of Aviation Collection in Richardson, Texas.

Rogers set multiple world records, shown in the List of world records in masters athletics. At the age of 50, Rogers took up running after reading the book Aerobics by Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper. Rogers credited Dr. Cooper with saving his life, "at least once, probably twice," first by kickstarting his running career, and again when Dr. Cooper discovered blockage in his heart during a Cooper test. Orville competed in Masters athletics races, setting records at the age of 90 and 95. In 2015, Orville teamed up with other nonagenarians to set multiple relay running records. He made national news after a video of his sprint against then 92 year old Dixon Hemphill went viral. Rogers, 99 at the time, won the race by 0.05 seconds. To celebrate his 100th birthday, Orville and his family ran a combined 100 miles. He then set two 100-year-old age group records in the 60m at 19.13 and 400m at 4:16:90 while competing at the 2018 USATF Masters Indoor Championships. In 2020 was voted to the USATF Masters Hall of Fame.

Rogers stated, “In the summer of 1927, Charles Lindbergh flew the Spirit of St. Louis in a circle above our little schoolhouse in Oklahoma. That brush with greatness inspired me at an early age to reach for the heights and ignore the consequences.”

After graduating from the University of Oklahoma Orville, convinced he should do some kind of work for God, decided to go to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, TX (He is a member of the Board of the Board of Visitors today.). He enrolled on Sept. 10, 1940, but less than two months later was drafted into the military service and permitted to join the Air Corps as a flying cadet.

I firmly believe God not only wants the very best for us, but also wants us to ask it of Him. For the next 17 years, I flew airplanes in the service of my Lord, facing great challenges as well as moments of unspeakable joy. I only had to ask and it was given.”

Orville’s love for flying connected him with Jungle Aviation and Radio Service (JAARS), a service arm for Wycliffe Bible Translators. He soon started ferrying airplanes for jungle missionaries across the wide oceans. At one point when in their 60s, Orville and Beth served 13 months in Tanzania as volunteer missionaries.

Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, TX, says of Orville Rogers, “ greatest accomplishments are not his amazing U.S. World Indoor and Outdoor Track records in the 90-99 age group, or his numerous mission trips, but his ability to inspire and motivate people to ‘continue the race.’”