Rogers High School (Rhode Island)

The school was founded by educator William Sanford Rogers in 1873 and was named for him.[2] The original Rogers High School building was on Church Street, the school moved to a building on Broadway in 1905 and the old building became the Thayer School and later a Boys and Girls Club. In 1957, the school moved to its current location on Wickham Road and the old Broadway building became the location for Thompson Middle School. An expansion to the school, The Newport Area Career and Technical Center, was completed in 1968.[3]

The school's newspaper The Red and Black was first published in 1920,[2] but ceased regular publication in the early 2000s.

The school began their football program in 1890 and their basketball program in 1905.

The school has the second oldest JROTC program in the country, founded in 1916. It also holds the Honor Unit With Distinction rank, the highest unit rank possible.[2]

"Fair Rogers " is sung at every commencement ceremony. Words by Harold B. Walcott, Music by H. S. Hendy.

Fair Rogers! Rogers Fair! Thy name...
Shall ever stand for holy fame...
From childhood's day we've looked to thee...
As up to some great deity.

Chorus:

O sing! Ye sons of Rogers! sing...
Loud let your rolling anthems ring...
And royal praise to Rogers bring...
Throughout our city fair.

• Edwin T. Banning, architect
• Bebe Buell, singer and model
• Frank Corridon, Major League Baseball pitcher (1904–1910)
• The Cowsills, 1960s singing act
• Tanya Donelly, co-founder and guitarist of the band Throwing Muses, lead vocalist of the band Belly and the guitarist for The Breeders
• Joanna Going, actress
• Paul Gordon, keyboardist and guitarist with The B-52's and New Radicals[4]
• Kristin Hersh, co-founder, vocalist, and guitarist of the band Throwing Muses
• P. H. Horgan III, PGA Tour player
• John Howard Benson, calligrapher and stone carver
• Van Johnson, actor
• Dorothy McCullough Lee, former mayor of Portland, Oregon (1949–1953)
• John Mellekas, professional football player
• Florence K. Murray, former Rhode Island State Senator (1949–1956)
• David Narcizo, drummer for the band Throwing Muses
• M. Teresa Paiva-Weed, former President of the Rhode Island Senate (2009–2017)
• Arthur Rosson, film director
• William Stevens Lawton, graduated from Rogers in 1917 and attained the rank of lieutenant general in the United States Army
• Josephine Silone Yates, the first black student at Rogers High School, she later became the first black woman to head a college science department