Gary Rogers was the youngest of 12 children in the Rogers family. He grew up during hard times, but the siblings were very close and enjoyed being together when they were children and as adults. He left Birmingham as a teenager and joined the Airforce and was posted to Athens, Greece. He met his wife, Despina Ermelinda (Linda) Koufoudakis, and married in Greece where they had their first child, Gary Wallace Rogers Jr. During his military career in the Air Force he was trained as a Flight Engineer and was active in both the Korean and Vietnam Wars. He dedicated 20 years to the military and was very proud of it. He was posted at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida where he welcomed Madeline Leah Rogers, their second child into the family.

His engineering and handy man skills came into use when he landed a job with Sears as a Customer Service Engineer where he spent his employment until he retired. He then took a trip in a camper van around Europe with his wife, Linda and really enjoyed traveling. He retired in Florida, but spent a lot of time enjoying traveling around Greece, swimming and walking. He became estranged from his wife, and so settled back in Birmingham and worked at a church camp as a custodian until he purchased a house in Irondale. He joined the First Baptist Church of Pinson and was very active there and went on several missions abroad. The biggest joy was meeting Elizabeth Hayes, a long term companion at church. They enjoyed life together; travelling, visiting family and friends, and supporting Alabama. He loved growing vegetables and making fig preserves from his garden, and sharing them with friends. He was a highly independent, stoic, sometimes even stubborn person who received so much joy by organising the family reunions and getting everyone together.

May he rest in peace, we love him, he will never be forgotten.