Celebrating the Life of Ellen Higginbotham Rogers '59

Ellen was passionate about education, championing education for girls and women and encouraging them to find and strengthen their voices. She devoted much of her life to The Hockaday School, where she served on the Board of Trustees from 1980 to 1986 and was named a Life Trustee in 1989. She was President of the Hockaday Alumnae Association from 1981 to 1982.

 

Ellen's connection to Hockaday spanned generations of her family. Her mother, Elizabeth Bell Higginbotham, served as the first female Chair of the Board of Trustees and was also a Life Trustee. Her father, Joseph L. Higginbotham, was on the Board of Trustees and served as the Finance Committee Chair, and her grandfather, R.W. Higginbotham, was a member of the first Hockaday Board of Trustees and also played an instrumental role in helping fund the purchase of the house on Haskell Avenue where Miss Hockaday’s first campus was located. She and her sisters, Jane Higginbotham Bayes '56, Marian Higginbotham Niles '62, and Harriet Higginbotham Stoneham '66, established an endowed fund in 1982 honoring their mother and her support of Hockaday's faculty.

 

In 1994, the Alumnae Association recognized Ellen with its highest honor for alumnae, the Hockaday Medal. The Ellen Higginbotham Rogers Award for Excellence was established by Ellen’s family members in 2006.  This award is given annually by the School to a faculty or staff member who has made a significant impact on Hockaday students.

 

Ellen was a graduate of Mills College in Oakland, California, and was a founder and former Board member of Girls Adventure Trails. She was a Board Member of the YWCA and the Women’s Council of Dallas, a Mills College Alumnae Trustee, Chair of the Mills College Major Gifts Committee, and the Mills College Dallas Branch President. She served as Co-Chair of the Capital Campaign for the Museum of the American Railroad in Frisco, Texas.

 

She and her husband, Richard “Dick”, have a daughter, Katherine Rogers Roberts ’89, a son, Michael Lattimore Rogers, and two grandchildren, William Henry Roberts V and Alice Goodrich Roberts ’20. Her other Hockaday connections include three great-nieces, Elizabeth Rhoades ’07, Callie Rhoades ’11, and Julia Emery ’24, and two aunts, Hattie Smith Higginbotham (Class of 1919) and Frances Higginbotham Nalle (Class of 1920), along with more than 60 relatives who are alumnae of Hockaday.