Internationally famous artist, Charles B. Rogers, was born January 27, 1911 at Great Bend, Kansas. As a child, Rogers dreamed of becoming an artist. During his childhood he had little encouragement to pursue his dream. He told a newspaper reporter in 1981: “I resented the fact that I had to figure out these things for myself.” After graduation from high school he set out to visit the best art galleries in the United States. At age twenty-five he returned to Kansas overwhelmed by what he had seen and soon gathered his first eight years of art work and burned it. He maintained “. . . it takes 20, 30 years to learn about art. . . .”

Rogers received a scholarship to the national Academy of Art in New York City. He later studied at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas, where he assisted world renowned artist Birger Sandzén, who was head of the art department. When Sandzén decided to retire, Charles B. Rogers, now a graduate and instructor, was chosen to succeed Sandzén as head of the Bethany art department.

During World War II, Rogers was a member of the Coast Guard for four years. After the war, he studied at the California College of Arts and Crafts. Rogers then returned to Kansas, teaching at Bethany for six years. After his stint at Bethany, he returned to California in the 1950s. In 1968, Rogers returned to Kansas and opened his studio/museum/gallery in the two-story American House hotel in downtown Ellsworth, Kansas.

While in California, Rogers became known as “The Kansan.” Rogers said in 1982, “. . . I think I’ve done some of my best work here. Nowhere else can you find the vistas you can get in Kansas. What happened after being in California all those years, was that I got horizon hungry.”

Rogers usually worked until midnight in his studio, always maintaining his feeling that “. . . My only regret is I won’t live long enough to create some of the things I want to get done. That’s why I work nights, to get some of it done. I’m going to keep on as long as I can wiggle.” Rogers did just that. Charles B. “The Kansan” Rogers died December 10, 1987 at Salina, Kansas, with burial at Ellsworth Memorial Cemetery.

Rogers has 127 works of art in Barton County Community College’s permanent art collection and the C. E. Denman collection.

(Sources: Great Bend Tribune, Friday, December 11, 1987, page 1. The Hutchinson News, Friday, December 11, 1987, page 1.)