With sadness and relief we announce the passing of David Charles Rogers aka Pop and Big Dave. Our gentle giant ended his dementia journey on January 17, 2023.

Dave was a Towson boy who loved football and lacrosse. Often the biggest player on the field, Rog (as his Towson High friends knew him) was a warrior with the drive to win at all costs. One of those costs was his beautiful brain. Through numerous concussions, often labeled as "getting your bell rung," he valiantly reentered the fray and finished the game. This fighting spirit both cost him his golden years and kept him with us longer than expected.

Dave met the love of his life while working the roast beef pit stand in Rehoboth Beach where he honed his grilling skills. Skills he perfected through decades of pool parties where he was always the grill master. He became a Sllorrac when he married Kathryn Carroll in 1985. He graduated to dad with the birth of Jordan Rogers Cuba  soon followed by both Maree Rogers Hecimovich and David Charles Rogers Jr. He gained two more sons Todd Cuba and Erik Hecimovich when he walked his girls down the aisle as the proud, but tearful, father of the brides.  Young in age, he was an old soul who took to fatherhood with gusto. Big Dave's lap was always available for kid cuddles and the tiny sleeping dogs he loved so much.  Roman Hecimovich and Camryn Cuba elevated him to grandfather status and provided happiness and joy in his darkest days.

Our workhorse was incapable of being lazy unless he had the beach, the company of family, good friends and a cooler of beer. Otherwise, he was building his construction business from a two-man deck building enterprise to a full-fledged commercial construction corporation. He used his high school diploma and his unrelenting work ethic to provide a beautiful life for his family, put three kids through college, and still had gas in the tank to coach, volunteer and  be Mr. Fixit to family, friends and neighbors. There wasn't a project he couldn't  take on or a broken thingamajig he couldn't fix.

When a diagnosis of Primary Progressive Aphasia was handed to him in 2014, he made the decision to never look at the future colored by his deteriorating health but rather to face the world one day at a time with whatever capacities remained intact. His unrelenting good nature and unending cache of bad Dad jokes kept him laughing, goofy and spreading joy to the end. Dave never met a stranger because, with just one word, you were already his friend.

Dave's brave, final act was  donating his brain to Northwestern University Hospital's Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology, where he participated in numerous studies to assist in the quest to find a cure. His time and efforts assisted Johns Hopkins Language Neuromodulation Lab in the same way. He was loved and supported by beautiful  friends from the young onset dementia support group who are all walking this torturous path with him.  It takes a village to navigate dementia and so much love goes out to family and friends who adjusted their lives, dropped everything and focused on Dave as he declined.

He will be dearly missed, but not a game of golf or broken water pipe in our future will pass without loving thoughts of him. As he did when he was with us, he will be sitting on the sidelines of every one of his grandkid's games, plays, recitals and birthday parties from heaven. He will be greeted by his brother, father, and so many others as he joins the best poker game heaven will ever witness. He will finally meet his father-in-law who brought Dave to us in the first place.

Dave lived life with gusto.  His ability to crack up a room with his jokes, entertain little ones with his animal impressions, teach everyone he knew how to ski, and give sage advice to all his kids, be they his own biological ones or those he considered his for other reasons, will be both mourned and celebrated. He lost his words but never his voice.

The family will receive friends at Peaceful Alternatives Funeral and Cremation Center, P.A., 2325 York Road, Timonium, Maryland 21093 on Sunday, January 22 from 1-3 PM with a Memorial Service to begin at 3 PM. Interment will be private. In lieu of flowers, please remember David with memorial contributions to YESSUPPORT.org .