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A very tall guy who put up, with good grace, with all of the boring jokes about his height. His good friend Geoff Higgs writes an anecdote about a visit to Canberra: One of my enduring memories of one trip we did to Canberra involved the Australian American Memorial. This memorial is a huge structure in the shape of an obelisk and with an American eagle mounted on the top. The memorial consists of an inner frame with a spiral staircase and an outer cladding of stainless steel that completely covers it from the bottom to the eagle on top. There is a locked door to prevent unauthorized entry and there is a moat filled with water to further deter adventurous youth. Neither of them worked! I counselled Roger against what he was thinking of doing but Roger found a way to get the door open and, after he had waded across the moat, he suggested that I come too with my camera. We climbed up the apparently endless spiral staircase to the very top of the memorial. The climb was completed in total darkness because Roger had closed the door after we got inside. He didn't want to attract any unnecessary attention. Never mind that my car was parked nearby for all to see. The heat was almost unbearable because we were there in summer but the climb turned out to be worthwhile because there were four small ventilation slots at the top that allowed us to take a series of photos across Canberra. We made the descent in darkness again and left without being detected. It was a silly thing to do but it provided a lot of memories that I still talk about today. Roger was also a practical joker and a mischief-maker. I was at the receiving end of many of his escapades over those years. He provided a lot of laughs. I was saddened to hear of Roger's passing but I'm sure he related that Canberra story too with a lot of good memories. He was always a bit more adventurous than me but he was fun to be with. |