Meet Tim Rogers, ’88 (Career Path: Journalism)

“Anyone can be a vandal” is Tim Rogers’ most memorable lesson from Cistercian.

If you are a frequent reader of D Magazine or an active member in the Cistercian community, you may know his name. Mr. Rogers went through high school at Cistercian, graduated in 1988, and has gone on to become one of the most prominent CPS alumni in Dallas as the editor of D Magazine. In addition, he holds one of the greatest collection of stories of any Cistercian alumni. However, his life — as with the lives of many journalists — was not always so great.

Tim didn’t start attending Cistercian during 5th grade, as most Cistercian students do, but instead attended public school during his middle school years. Seemingly heading into Hillcrest High School, he recalls, “I was heading in the wrong direction.” Luckily for him, his mother, a teacher herself, found Cistercian.

Rogers claims to have been ‘ill’ when taking the entrance exam in 8th grade, which either shows his great intelligence or the ease of the entrance exam back in the early 80s. Joining Fr. Henry’s Class of 1988 for his Freshman year, Tim hit it off with his new brothers. He participated in several sports including track, basketball, and football. However, this future journalist’s only writing while at Cistercian was for the literary magazine Reflections.

In his four years at Cistercian, Tim Rogers managed to fit in more pranks and adventures than most students can in all eight years. A transformation overcame Tim while at Cistercian as he realized the difference between being a vandal and being a genius trickster. Mr. Rogers readily recalls three of these tricks.

First, Tim and some of his classmates decided to surprise one of their teachers by setting up a garage sale in her yard. Most memorably from this experience, the students borrowed a giant balloon from a car dealership and were unable to fit it in the car, so they drove to the teacher’s house with it flying above the car.

Second, a group of Tim and his friends decided to steal a Big Boy statue from the front of a restaurant. However, when they returned to the forest where they had hidden the Big Boy, it was nowhere to be found.

Lastly, the troupe of tricksters held a mongoose for ransom. They were driving through a neighborhood when they spotted a mongoose lawn decoration on a pole popping up over someone’s fenced backyard. One of the group ran out, scaled the fence, grabbed the mongoose, sprinted back to the car, and quickly drove off. The mongoose-nappers sent ransom notes for the mongoose to the house every other week for the next three months until they eventually put it back.

After graduating from Cistercian, Tim Rogers went on to major in American Studies at the University of Notre Dame. As a freshman, Rogers wanted to major in architecture, but after taking a course with a writing coach professor, Rogers decided that journalism was his preferred route. While at Notre Dame, Rogers became a section editor of the oldest student-run magazine in the country, Scholastic, and then interned for the Notre Dame alumni magazine.

D Magazine was Mr. Rogers’ first internship outside of Notre Dame. From this internship, he went on to work for several other magazines and hosted a morning radio show on 93.3 FM until he became the senior editor of D Magazine, a position which he still holds to this day. He shared that his one regret in the whole process was when he took a job he didn’t want. His wife had just told him she was pregnant and he “freaked out” because he was freelancing at the time, which produced an unstable income. So, he took a job at the Fort Worth Star Telegram and ended up quitting after thinking it over for one day.

“You better really love it,” Rogers says, “Or else it’s not worth it.”

Mr. Rogers has two main points of advice for anyone who wants to become a journalist.

1. “Be curious about everything.” The more information someone has, the more useful they are to a publication. Mr. Rogers recollects one of the best exercises he ever did was walking around town and talking with random people about their thoughts.
2. “Figure something out and be the best at it.” Cultivate your natural talent by blogging about your interests and commenting on other blogs whenever you get the chance (you can find Mr. Rogers’ blogs at D Frontburner here). “If you are the best expert on cheese in Dallas,” Rogers says, “And you have a blog about cheese and we need an article about cheese, we’ll tell you.”

Tim Rogers had, and continues to have, the complete Cistercian experience in life. Not only is he greatly successful in the usual sense, but he is a man with a great attitude. He loves giving back to the Cistercian community and encourages anyone who is thinking of becoming a journalist, or who just wants to hear more great stories, to contact him through The Informer.