Roger Bruce Cramer

Roger was born at Margaret Hague Hospital in Jersey City, NJ. On August 26, 1947 to Jack and May Cramer. He attended Horace Mann Grammar School – approx. 6 blocks from his home – of course it was uphill and thru the snow (both ways) – and actually it sometimes really was.

He was in Cub Scouts and went to Camp Towadena in northwest New Jersey. He served as a camp counselor as well at Camp Towadena and obtained the rank of Eagle Scout at 13. He was always very proud to be part of this organization and was so proud that both his sons became Eagles too. He qualified as a Scout Lifeguard when he was 13 years old and saved 5 boys from drowning on the waterfront. He was one of the 1st to get the BSA mile swim badge – it had just been offered and he had been swimming miles in the lagoon at his family's shore house since he was about 4 years old.

Roger spent all his non-school hours playing street sports or basketball at the local park. In the evenings, different groups would meet and compete bench to bench with acapella singing – mostly Motown because the songs were beautiful. In his teen years he went to the Soho area of Greenwich Village in NYC a lot – went to the Café Wha – The Who were just tadpoles but they put out a great sound – they didn't really hit for a few years. His buds and he used to sit at a sidewalk café and converse with the Loving Spoonful and he hung out with the 4 Seasons in Newark until the race riots began. Roger was a Brooklyn Dodger fan to the end. As a child, he had the opportunity to sit in the Dodger's dugout and met many of the great ball players of that era.

His favorite place in the world was his grandparent's shore house where he spent his summers with his Mom and Grandma. Every day (in the summer) he would row his Grandpa's boat up the lagoon, into the bay, around the point by the Yacht Club, up another undeveloped lagoon to THE store and buy a daily paper and then row back, approximately 5 to 6miles round trip.

There were huckleberry bushes on the side of the shore house – in the morning he would get a bowl of cereal, go out to the bushes and pick huckleberries and put them in the bowl, go inside, add milk and eat them.

Roger swam several miles recreationally daily and had many childhood friends at the shore that he spent many pleasant days exploring, sailing and water skiing. He spoke often and fondly of crabbing from the dock and of his Grandma's delicious crab cakes. Roger was able to take his own sons to the family shore house and teach them to crab from the same dock he fished when he was boy.

Roger's family home was at 807 85th St North Bergen, NJ. His grandparents lived next door. His grandparents maintained a large garden with rhubarb, lettuce, carrots, spinach, potatoes, and turnips. There were several fruit trees including cherry, peach and apple which he helped harvest. He spoke fondly of his Mom's apple butter by the pound, Rhubarb pie and turnip salad.

His Grandma, Mom and he used to play cards every Saturday night. They played Canasta, Samba, Bolivia, Tripoli, Spades and other card games. Roger said he learned to count by playing cards with these two wonderful women. This fostered a lifelong love of card playing. He was a member of the Card Sharks in Lakeway until he became too ill to play.

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He learned cribbage while in submarine school as well as poker and pinochle. He was he pinochle champ for 3 patrols. Roger was a Crossword puzzle nut. He did them in pen. A normal everyday puzzle would take him about 5 minutes to complete, the Sunday puzzle about 30 minutes. He started solving crossword puzzles while in the Navy (New York Daily News). Roger continued to work the crosswords until shortly before his death. He also loved the daily Jumble which took him approximately 10 seconds to solve. The genesis for this obsession was his spelling bee competitions in grammar school where he completed and advanced to the national level. Roger was also a voracious reader and always had two different books going at any given time.

He attended and graduated from North Bergen High School. He played basketball his freshman year. The coach was a NJ legend – Joe Coviello – a very nice man as Roger learned from many visits to his Vice-Principal. His second year of high school he obtained a brown belt in karate from the master that also trained the Marine Raiders.

Roger's junior year of high school he was a gymnast. He loved the sport. His gymnastic coach forbid him to play basketball for fear of injury. His gymnastic Coach was about 5' tall and solid as a rock – a big rock – he was a world class tumbler as a kid – shattered his right wrist at one point – tumbled after that with a hand and a fist – he was in his 40's or 50's when he was the coach and could out-tumble any of his students. Roger learned from the best. He also taught them trampoline.

Roger was recruited that same year to participate in Pole Vault and Javelin by the track coach, (a former NBA forward) who came to the gymnastic team – the kip motion is basic in gymnastics and required in pole vaulting. Roger also participated in the high jump and broad jump and went to county championships for pole vault and javelin (still have the school record) and broad jump.

His senior year of high school the basketball coach again asked him to play for the school. He said it was amazing watching the 5' hulky and with limited photogenic gymnastic coach telling the 6'5" thin movie star looking basketball coach that not only no but hell no Roger couldn't play basketball as he was going nowhere with basketball but was expecting a full scholarship to Penn State for gymnastics – They were either #1 or #2 every year in gymnastics – so he didn't play basketball (as far as his coach knew).

His specialty was the long horse vault – When he got to the state meet his senior year the beater board used to enhance vaults was broken, therefore - no spring for the vaulters so although his knees would cave when he hit the board , it did not allow for a handspring flip and he did not get the scholarship to Penn State.

He applied to the University of Texas at Austin, one of a handful of universities with an Architect School at the time and was accepted. His first year at UT, he participated in Intramural football, softball. University gymnastics, recreational handball, and racquetball. He pledged the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity his second semester and met his roommate and lifelong best friend, Arthur Wilson. His Mother died that year and he went home for the summer and worked on the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad mostly in the Meadowlands where the big stadium is now. His second year, he transferred to the business school but couldn't get off scholastic probation. He realized that he was in the first wave to be drafted to serve in the armed forces. He went to enlist in the Marines but their door was locked for lunch so he went across the hall, the Navy door was open and enlisted as an E-2 . Shortly thereafter, his Father died. He reported to the submarine school barracks in San Diego on his 21st birthday and was promptly appointed the athletic PO and, as such, directed all sports activities for the company (about 25 guys) and served as a lifeguard at the base pool. When he went through Sub School there weren't Polaris Patrol Pins – his was the 1st crew to receive them.

He was assigned to (of all boats after enlisting in Texas) the USS Sam Houston, SSBN 609(B) – The (B) means Blue crew as opposed to the Gold crew – His term of service was, basically ½ year each – they would have the boat for 3 months then the other crew would take it, etc. He qualified on his 1st patrol and got his dolphins out of the Holy Loch in Scotland

He did 3 or 4 patrols out of the Holy Loch – the last one over Russia, came back to Scotland, loaded 7 dummy missiles and went down off the Azores. Then they moved the boat to a new home port in Rota, Spain.

They fired 7 dummies from the Azores into the Caribbean – one wouldn't fire and when it was Roger's turn to hit the button, the missile launched. His boat was awarded a MUC (Meritorious Unit Commendation).

The crew would get 1 or 2 weekends off between the time they took over from the Gold crew and the time they went under. They usually would go to the bullfights in Sevilla or Cordoba. He once saw El Cordobes, the most famous bullfighter of the time fight.

Roger served 4 years in the Navy and then came back to Texas to complete his education. There he met and married the love of his life and wife of 38 years, Lisa. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a B.B.A. in accounting and went to work for the Texas Department of Transportation.

He had been there about 6 months when his boss (Joe Ware) asked if he was interested in computer systems. There was a new group being formed to create a new financial system for the Dept and he thought Roger would be an excellent addition to the team. Roger agreed to take the job. He and a team of auditors and programmers worked to develop FIMS, the financial information management system which is still being used today by TxDOT.

When FIMS was finally implemented Roger was promoted to Manager of Voucher Audit. All payment documents for TXDOT came thru his office for audit and approval. He signed over 400 voucher cover documents a day. He supervised 4 wonderful auditors whose judgment he trusted.

His next assignment was to replace his immediate superior as Manager of Voucher Processing.

Winston Anderson was a wonderful person, a great leader, a deep thinker and a musician. Before Roger worked for him, during FIMS research, he had much interaction with him and found him to be very astute, intelligent, funny and nice.

In that position Roger was in charge of several units:

Audit – his old group, Audited all TXDOT payment vouchers.

Travel – payments for all state travel.

Equipment – All purchases of TXDOT equipment.

Division Expenses – anything purchased by a division.

Disbursement – they received warrants for the whole state (100's per day) and had to send them out to the appropriate district/division/recipient .

At one point he had 35 people reporting to him.

He worked with 2 other managers that were very (extremely) competent. At one point it was decided that the travel payments should be merged with payroll since it was personnel oriented, and his travel unit was transferred to Payroll (2 people).

Then his disbursement unit (1 person) was transferred to the construction payment unit.

He was down to a much more manageable 4 supervisors:

Audit, Division Services, Division Equipment and Division Other.

These people and their people were wonderful. He often said he couldn't have asked for a better crew. They did their respective jobs, did them outstandingly, and never were there a hit by the Comptroller's auditors that was not explained sufficiently.

Roger tended to be a wandering manager – He would walk around his area talking with his folks about their thoughts and concerns. His goal was to be visible and let his people know that he cared and would help.

Always the athlete, Roger played on the department's volleyball and baseball teams as well as a city baseball league with some of his best friends including Victor and Adrian Garcia and Robert Casas. Roger had a legendary throwing arm and he loved the time spent with his buddies.

Roger contracted cancer in 2001 and retired from the department in 2002.

The absolute pride and joy of his life was his wife and sons Colt and Jack. He never stopped bragging on their individual accomplishments and marveled at Jack's natural mechanical ability to take anything apart and fix it, especially car engines. He was amazed and in awe of Colt's ability to play the bass guitar and trombone. He proudly attended every function from Cub Scout campouts, swim meets, basketball, baseball, soccer and football games to concerts and competitions to cheer on his sons. To this day, the family recalls with laughter his booming "HOOHAW" that signaled the boys where ever they were that Dad was in the audience cheering for them.

Roger loved his sister-in-law and her husband Mitch Litwer and was forever grateful for their friendship. He was most proud of his niece and nephew, Laura and Gabe Litwer and enjoyed being with them through several family vacations.

Roger loved the ocean and wanted to be buried at sea. Lisa will carry his ashes to the New Jersey Shore this summer to the place he loved as a child and they will be scattered at sea in a private ceremony.

Loved and respected by all who knew him, Roger will be remembered for his courage, his optimism, his intelligence, his extraordinary sense of humor and his deep and unconditional love for his family. He was funny, smart, a good friend, a true and loyal husband and an adoring Father. Our hearts are broken with his passing. God's Speed Roger.

There are not enough words to thank his best friend Art Wilson who watched over Roger and his family and took charge of things when Roger no longer had the strength to do so. The family would like to extend special thanks also to Terri and Tracey Johnson without which Lisa would not have been able to keep all the balls in the air. Thanks also to all the wonderful women and men that prayed for Roger and his family throughout the months, weeks and days prior to his death.

Memorial services are set for Tuesday, February 19, 2013 at 2pm in the afternoon at the Lakeway Church, 2203 Lakeway Boulevard, in Lakeway, Texas.