RIP: 03/08/2023 - Milwaukee
Br. Roger Alexander Nelson was born in Brooklyn, New York, on 7 June 1942. After a period of searching, trial and discernment he entered the Society’s Novitiate in Waukesha, Wisconsin, at Mount St. Paul College in 1968, and made his profession of vows there on 26 July 1969. Although Bro. Roger originally entertained the idea of serving in the foreign missions, he was invited to consider working with children at the Mother Mary Mission in Phenix City, Alabama. He spent seven years there teaching. In the summers he served as a counsellor at the Society’s Camp St. Charles in Rock Point, Maryland. Put in charge of the “Nature Wagon,” Bro. Roger found a true calling in becoming a modern-day Saint Francis by taking care of numerous animals and teaching the campers about them. Some of the animals came home with him during the school year months and became pets in his classes, which also helped the children to learn about them better. He spent a year as a Counsellor in the Catholic Charities Home in Washington, DC, where his pets were found to be quite useful as therapy animals. He also studied at Antioch University in Ohio and received a B.A. in Education. He served as substitute teacher at St. Michael’s School in Silver Spring, Maryland, which led to a teaching position at nearby St. John the Baptist School for the next eleven years. During those years he also earned his master’s in education from Trinity College in DC. In 1990, he brought these skills to the Frost School in Rockville, working along with confreres until retirement in 2011. Internally, Bro. Roger also ministered in many other ways: as a member and officer in the Salvatorian DC Area Board, as Assistant Director at Camp St. Charles, and as a member of the USA Province’s Formation Commission, guiding the newer members in their early years in the community. He also served as Assistant to the Director of Novices for a time. During his retirement years, he began experiencing memory issues and other health concerns. In March of 2019, he was asked to move into the Society’s retirement community at Alexian Village in Milwaukee. Over the coming year, the medical and memory issues increased, and he spent several months in both the Village’s Health Centre and in the Assisted Living community before needing full-time care back in the Health Centre beginning in late 2020. He died there peacefully on the morning of 3 August 2023, at the age of 81 and having been a Salvatorian for 54 years.
