Roger started at Ithaca College in 1986 and retired in 2015. He and his wife, and his children were a strong IC family. Debora and Justine, his daughters, both graduated from IC, and you could often see his wife Suzie chatting in the halls as a textbook rep for Houghton Mifflin.
Roger earned his Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis where he studied under Hyman Minsky, perhaps the foremost scholar on financial fragility and crisis. After teaching at Rutgers University, Roger took a research position at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, where he also taught part-time at Case Western Reserve University. He was elevated to Vice President of Research at the Fed, but what he really wanted to do was teach.
While here at IC, Roger regularly filled his Money and Banking, Monetary Policy, and Macro Growth courses semester after semester. He had the passion for teaching and the real-world experience from policy-making at the Fed that made his classes very special. He was well loved by his students and advised many on senior thesis topics related to evidenced-based macro policies. Alumni often ask after him and speak of how he inspired them and prepared them for graduate school or positions in economics and finance.
During his 28 years at Ithaca College, Roger never took a sabbatical. He did more than his fair share of department and college service work. He retired in 2015. On his last day of work, he sat with one of his senior students as she earned honors in economics by defending her thesis before a faculty panel.
In recent years, Roger and Suzie had moved from Lansing to Canandaigua to be closer to family and Roger spent his time learning online poker, popping into the local bookstore to get just one more history book, and co-writing a book with his 10-year old grandson titled Adventures of Ripley and Zed.
Please follow this link for his obituary. Calling hours will be Sunday, January 8th from 1-3 at the Johnson Funeral Home on Main Street in Canandaigua. Condolences may be offered at www.johnsonkennedy.com.
In lieu of flowers, please offer a donation to the Lansing Theater and Performing Arts Booster Club (LTAPA), an organization for which Roger was the founding treasurer, and which supports all things arts-related at Lansing Central Schools, including scholarships. To donate online, you may go to https://Givebutter.com/LTAPA-Donate or checks, made out to LTAPA, can be mailed to:
LTAPA
c/o Lansing High School
300 Ridge Rd
Lansing, NY 14882
[Above remarks written by Professor Shaianne Osterreich]