Lawrence Rodney Rodgers, M.D.

Lawrence Rodney Rodgers, M.D., M.A.C.P., died Thursday, December 13, 2012 in Houston, Texas. He was born March 9, 1920 in Clovis, NM to Samuel Frank Rodgers, a cowboy, and Lillian Jessie O'Connor, a schoolteacher. He grew up in Amarillo, Texas, enduring the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, as did all there in his generation. Always a scholar, he was elected to the AOA in his junior year at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston in Alumnus.

Dr. Rodgers volunteered and served in the United States Army during WWII in the ETO in the 42nd Rainbow Infantry Division as a frontline battalion surgeon. He was awarded the Combat Medical Badge, 3 Bronze Stars, and 4 Battle Stars, one of which was for The Bulge, when half his battalion was casualties. His actions at Dachau Concentration Camp and his treatment of Jews in occupied Austria are on videotape in the Houston Holocaust Museum.

Dr. Rodgers specialized in internal medicine at Philadelphia General Hospital for three years and practiced that specialty in Houston from 1949 to 1994. His greatest achievement was practicing the quality medicine taught him by his mentors, T.M. Durant, George Hermann and Raymond Gregory. He loved caring for his patients and enjoyed his professional career. He was elected Chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at Hermann Hospital in 1965 and was the leader of the Hermann Staff effort to establish the University of Texas Medical School there in 1966-7. He was active in its founding at the Texas Legislature, and its funding by the U.S. Congress. He served the new school on many committees, and as Professor of Clinical Medicine.

Dr. Rodgers believed in the values of organized medicine and their efforts to better serve patients. He served Harris County Medical Society as TMA Delegate, and 5 years on their executive board, including a year as Vice-President. He was the Editor of the "Harris County Physician" when it took the First Place Sandoz Award for Bulletins for County Medical Societies with over 2000 members.

Dr. Rodgers served as President of the Houston Society of Internal Medicine in 1974 and the Houston Academy of Medicine in 1981. He served as President of the Doctors Club of Houston in 1986 and the Houston Philosophical Society in 1994. He served the AMA as program chairman, collecting 190 speakers, for their only Houston Convention in 1967. He was elected to the Texas Delegation to the AMA and served 17 years. He led the fight against thermography as a valid diagnostic test, and against chelation as a valid treatment for arteriosclerosis and he opposed the expensive restrictions on the use of Closapine in treating schizophrenics. He led the Delegation's efforts to establish a U.S.-Mexico Health Commission to deal with hepatitis, tuberculosis, etc. along the 2000 mile border. Then surgeon General Everett Koop opposed this at the AMA, but Rodney prevailed over the popular Koop.

Dr. Rodgers served in the TMA House of Delegates for thirty years and was elected to Emeritus status in 1995. He was a founding Director of the Texas Medical Foundation. The TMF appointed him Coordinator of their study of the medical care in State of Texas Mental institutions in 1974-5. The reports filled a useful book. He served the American College of Physicians as Governor for Texas 1978-85. In 1993, his medical school, the University of Texas at Galveston, honored him with the Ashbel Smith Distinguished Alumnus Award. The American College of Physicians awarded him the Laureate Internist Award for Texas. In 1996, the ACP awarded him a Mastership of the College. Dr. Rodgers was an active member of the Texas Club of Internists. He and Ivy often said that the TCI was their favorite medical organization.

Rodney was an avid golfer and enjoyed a game of 18 holes each week with three other friends at Brae Burn Country Club. He was also an accomplished card player and on stormy days the foursome would play Gin Rummy and Texas Hold 'em in the locker room. Cards and other such games were a life long passion for Rodney. He played Bridge with Ivy and other couples, Gin and Chess with his children and grandchildren, Free Cell with his sister Janice and Boggle with his only daughter Elizabeth.

His beloved wife, Ivy Lorna Piper, sweetheart and partner for sixty years, their son Larry, and his sisters Joyce Ellis, Janice Guerin and Dr. Martha Thomas, preceded him in death. He is survived by his children, Elizabeth Williams and her husband Joe, his son George P. Rodgers, MD and his wife Leslie, by his grandchildren, Michael Rodgers, Genni Beth Rodgers, and Alexandra Rodgers.

The family wishes to acknowledge the prayers, loving support and extraordinary care provided by Tammy Broussard, Debra Adams, Gail Joubert, Dora Alvarado, Allison Gomez, Alex Extrimodura, Joyce Brightly, Dr. William Lent and Cindy Jusenius.

The memorial service for Dr. Lawrence Rodgers will be held on Friday, December 21, 2012 at 2:00pm at St. Martin's Episcopal Church, 717 Sage Rd., in Houston, Texas, with The Reverend Martin J. Bastain officiating. Immediately following, all are invited to greet the family during a reception in the nearby Bagby Parrish Hall. .

In lieu of flowers, if you would like, please make a contribution in Rodney's name to the charity of your choice .