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Lt.Cdr. William P. Rogers, USN WWII

VETERAN SERVICE DATES: 08/16/1942 - 01/26/1946
U.S. Attorney General, 1957-61; U.S. Secretary of State, 1969-73

William Pierce Rogers (June 23, 1913 – January 2, 2001) was an American politician, who served as a Cabinet officer in the administrations of two U.S. Presidents in the third quarter of the 20th century.

Life and career
Rogers was born June 23, 1913, in Norfolk, New York. He was raised, from early in his teens, following the death of his mother, by his grandparents, in Canton, New York.

After education at Colgate University and Cornell University Law School, he passed the bar in 1937. Under Thomas E. Dewey he worked from 1938 to 1942 in the prosecution of organized crime in New York City. In 1942, he enlisted in the Navy and served aboard the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid, seeing combat in the Battle of Okinawa and surviving two kamikaze attacks. His final rank in the Navy was lieutenant commander.

While serving as a Committee Counsel to a US Senate committee, he examined the documentation from the House Un-American Activities Committee's investigation of Alger Hiss at the request of then-Congressman Richard M. Nixon, and advised Nixon that Hiss had lied and that the case against him should be pursued.

In 1950, Rogers became a partner in a New York City law firm, Dwight, Royall, Harris, Koegel & Caskey. Thereafter he returned to this firm when not in government service. It was later renamed Rogers & Wells, and subsequently Clifford Chance Rogers & Wells. He worked in the firm's Washington, D.C. office until several months before his death.

ROGERS, William, LCDR

Lt.Cdr. William P. Rogers, USN WWII