Roger Warren Gregory

Roger graduated from West High School on 28th & Hennepin in Minneapolis, MN in 1954 where he played football and ran track; attended university of Minnesota, and was a Veteran of the United States Army. He was stationed in Germany during the Korean War. He was honorably discharged in 1956.

He was a hardware salesman for several companies, including Raymer Hardware Co., Sargent Lock & Co, Leslie-Locke. Roger was transferred every couple of years from Minnesota to Ohio, Missouri, and then finally settling in Indianapolis. A feather in his cap was outfitting the new St Vincent’s Hospital being built on 86th Street with all the specialty doors and locks. After transitioning his career in a totally different direction to Operations with the United States Post Office at the main Indianapolis distribution facility downtown at Illinois St. & South St., he still continued in the hardware industry. Roger worked special events, like the annual HWI Hardware Show in Indy, as part of Ed Sullivan’s independent sales rep team and it was a real highlight of his year connecting with people at these shows.

After 25 years of service at USPS, Roger retired around the age of 70. He loved riding his bicycle and often biked down the Monon Trail to work at the Indianapolis facility. In his last few years at the post office, he set up a schedule to break up his routine where he started his workday in the Nora branch in the morning and then finished his day downtown. Even after retiring from work, he stayed involved in the community and was part of the Nora-Northside Community Council where he was a Board Member for several years and stayed very active to provide a means of improving, maintaining and beautifying the broader area where he lived.

Roger was a member of Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Newfields Museum, and WFYI-TV where he later would volunteer for many years. In 2015, WFYI honored 1,200 volunteers for their work throughout 2014 and Roger was one of 2 people with special recognition as a 300-hour volunteer that year. In addition to his faith, he spent many hours and took great pride in helping to trim and maintain the care of bushes, shrubs, and trees at his church, as well as other odd jobs as needed.

He had a passion for gardening, the Arts, baked goods, rare coins and DIY projects. Not only did Roger enjoy visiting museums, quaint cafes, and attending summer art fairs through the years, his interest drew him to volunteering at all these places he liked. He became involved with WFYI-TV (PBS), The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields on 38th St, Eiteljorg Museum, Mid-North Food Pantry, and the Indianapolis Public Library.

The extensive flower gardens at his home on College Ave in the Windcombe neighborhood included a butterfly garden, flowering plants designed to bloom throughout the season and even at different times of the day, and leaving certain foliage through the winter months to provide shelter and seeds for winter critters. Roger loved sitting in the sun on his glass-enclosed back porch and would do some birding with two sets of binoculars. He was an avid DIYer renovating and remodeling his 1904 white farmhouse on Haverstick Rd in Carmel up the street from where St Elizabeth Seton’s church eventually was built. He continued that DIY process in his next home of 30 years on North College Ave in Indianapolis.

Through his hard work and strong work ethic, Roger instilled those same values in his children and took extreme pride in all their accomplishments through life. He made an effort to attend all the wide variety of activities, sports and events, in which he had encouraged them to participate and do their best.

He attended many performances at the Indianapolis Symphony & Clowes Hall, as well as summer musical events at Conner Prairie. He listened daily, without fail to NPR on the radio, particularly the classic music segments in late afternoons. Following watching his PBS news sources on WFYI, he really enjoyed the English mystery series that came later in the evenings. In his teens, Roger worked in a Jazz Club in the Twin Cities where Miles Davis played regularly. He always called him Mr. Davis, who would talk with Roger about music and life, and made such an impression on a young boy to influence his lifelong deep appreciation for music.

Roger cherished small local cafés offering wonderful bread and pastries where he frequented places like Illinois Street Food Emporium (and even calling on many Saturday mornings to preorder the famous cheese danish and scones on a regular basis), Renee’s French Restaurant, Shapiro’s Delicatessen, and the Nora Bagel Fair along with Rene’s Bakery in Broad Ripple. As a man with eclectic tastes, he enjoyed collecting, but mostly researching the history on rare coins where he was fascinated with the different mints, the metals used and quantities of each made in different years, and the various quality grading that occurred relative to these factors. He also put together a small collection of cuckoo clocks. It seems that interest emerged from his military days stationed in Germany and traveling the countryside where many of these clocks were produced.

Most people that knew Roger appreciated his dry sense of humor and also came to understand he preferred keeping his eyebrows very long and bushy. So much so, he would not let the barber trim them most of his life. His kids often poked fun at him that he had huge caterpillars living on his forehead. Not sure if that’s a trademark look, but it sure was his look!

Roger is survived by his son, Mike Gregory of Vail, CO and daughter, Pam Gregory of Seattle, WA. He was preceded in death by his son, Steve Gregory on September 1, 2016; brother, Paul Gregory, and mother, Mildred Gregory.

Visitation will be held on Tuesday, January 14, 2025 from 5-7 PM at Leppert Mortuary – Nora Chapel, 740 E. 86th Street, Indianapolis. The funeral service will be Wednesday, January 15, 2025 at 11:00 AM at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 526 E. 52nd St., Indianapolis, Indiana. Final resting place will be at Fort Snelling National Cemetery, Minneapolis, MN.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in Roger’s memory may be made to Wheeler Mission or the charity of your choice.