Shirley George Rogers was born in New York in 1864. He moved to Winston-Salem in 1890 and worked as a plumber for the L. B. Brickenstein Company. He also worked for the Salem Volunteer Fire Department before Winston and Salem merged in 1913.
Shirley had a great love for nature and the out-of-doors environment. When he wasn’t working he spent his time hunting and fishing, and especially enjoyed climbing mountains in the Roan Mountain area. He also enjoyed sharing his love for and knowledge about nature with young people.
Shirley spent time in the Roaring Gap area and became interested in establishing a Girl Scout camp. The camp was set up about 1928 and Shirley helped in the development and physical improvement of the camp. He enjoyed interacting with the young people, telling them interesting and amusing stories. He also liked to tell the girls about the movement and significance of celestial bodies, and used his telescope to illustrate his talks.
In 1933, the Girl Scouts voted to name the camp for Shirley Rogers.
Shirley returned to Winston-Salem about 1940, where he lived with his brother, Nelson Davis Rogers, his sister-in-law, Margaret, and his niece, Shirley Marie Rogers.
Shirley died in 1955 and a portrait of him, painted by Fries Shaffner, hung in the camp administrative building.
Camp Shirley Rogers was open from 1928 to 1974.
Here are two postcards that date from 1947 of the Main Lodge and canoeing on the lake at Camp Shirley Rogers:
And, here are a few images of the camp and campers in later years:
Photographs courtesy of Forsyth County Public Library Photograph Collection.
Stay tuned for the next historical feature on June 20th: June 1967 – The Bull Arrives at Staley’s!
