Bruce Rogers '87
Bruce Rogers '87: Donations Honor Kindness of Mentor and Friend
It makes sense for me to give back to the Law School in a way that recognizes all the things Jerome did for me.
- Bruce Rogers
A
scholarship in his second year enabled Bruce Rogers to complete his
education at Duke Law. The enduring friendship he forged with Professor Jerome Culp, and the generosity and wise counsel Culp offered to him through law school and beyond, helped Rogers to pursue
his professional dreams. Rogers says that it is his pleasure to now give back by generously supporting a scholarship in memory of Culp who died in February 2004.
“It was important to me to continue Jerome’s legacy of giving in this way,” says Rogers who returned to Duke to attend an event in Culp’s honor on February 13. “I have been fortunate and blessed to have success in business and to be able to make a meaningful contribution to honor Jerome.”
Rogers, whose Denver-based private equity investment firm, KRG Capital Partners (KRG), has $2 billion under management, helped launch the Culp scholarship in 2004 with a $50,000 donation. He and his wife, Sally, contributed a further $100,000 in December 2005, which was matched with challenge funds from a new University-wide Financial Aid Initiative. (See box.) The first Culp scholar, Reginald Harris, entered Duke with the class of 2008.
Rogers turned down a full scholarship to the University of North Carolina Law School in 1984 in favor of attending Duke, even though it meant he had “to borrow everything I could” to do so, due to his family’s financial situation. “I thought it worthwhile to my professional career to go to one of the top national law schools,” he says. He hoped that doing well in his first year would land him a scholarship in his second, but wasn’t given one immediately, in spite of placing high in the 1L class.
Culp was Rogers’ small section and torts professor in his first year, and the two got to know each other in the classroom and on the basketball court, during the pick-up games of which Culp was famously fond. Rogers shared with Culp his difficult decision to withdraw from Duke after his first year, and his ongoing financial concerns after he received a tuition-only scholarship beginning in the 1986 spring semester.
“Jerome had just purchased a house right next to East Campus, and offered to rent me an upstairs room free of charge as long as I would help him with renovations,” recalls Rogers, who lived there through his graduation from Law School with another classmate while Culp was a visiting professor at another university. “Through Jerome’s generosity and genuine interest in my success, we really forged a strong and long lasting friendship. He came out to Colorado when I got married, he was there after my first child was born, and he was a mentor to me throughout my career, first as a lawyer, then as a businessman. He always gave me great counsel and wisdom.”
Following graduation, Rogers went into mergers, acquisitions, and corporate law, achieving partnership in the Denver offices of Kirkland & Ellis and then Hogan & Hartson. When he was contemplating leaving his partnership to launch KRG with his brother-in-law in 1996, he sought Culp’s advice.
“He told me that where I was going and what I was doing with my legal background was a natural progression, reminding me that, in addition to my legal skills, I had worked just as hard to develop my business skills,” says Rogers, who majored in business and finance at Stetson University. “He encouraged me to pursue my dreams. He always asked the tough questions, and helped me frame things so I made the right decision.”
It was a move that paid off. Rogers speaks with pride of the excellent track record KRG now has in the leveraged buyout marketplace, and the fact that the State of North Carolina and Duke University Management Company are among its largest investors. He is certain that he made the right decision in coming to Duke.
“I couldn’t have done it without the legal training I received at Duke and the background it enabled me to develop. The Duke Law credential opened the door to Kirkland & Ellis and then Hogan & Hartson, both national firms. It opened up a lot of doors for me professionally that otherwise probably would not have been open. And I would say that just the overall education I received here at Duke was invaluable to me as I progressed as a lawyer and then into private equity.”
Culp taught him what it “really means to give,” says Rogers, who put that lesson into practice as soon as he graduated in 1987. He spent part of that summer cycling from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., raising money for children with disabilities through “Push America,” a charity supported by his college fraternity, Pi Kappa Phi. That ride inspired Pi Kappa Phi’s “Journey of Hope,” which annually involves about 70 young men cycling across the country along three different routes, with stops for “friendship visits” with disabled children along the way. To date the ride has raised more than $5 million which has been used to finance recreational facilities and events that allow disabled children to enjoy outdoor activities.
Rogers was pleased to honor Culp at the 2002 Journey of Hope wrap-up banquet in Washington, D.C., sharing with the ride’s participants and their families the story of how Culp helped him. “The ride is a life-changing event for the participants,” explains Rogers. “When I see them in Washington, D.C., their perspective on life is changed–they realize how fortunate they are. I introduced Jerome to them and told the audience about what he did for me, and reminded the team members of the need to always give back.” That’s exactly what Rogers continues to do with his support of the Culp scholarship.
“My scholarship from Duke, and Jerome’s kindness and support, enabled me to complete my education. It makes sense for me to give back to the Law School in a way that recognizes all the things Jerome did for me.”