S. Gordon Rogers IV, Satilla RIVERKEEPER®, Executive Director

Gordon Rogers was raised in south Georgia, the son of Rev. Sam and Helen Rogers of the South Georgia United Methodist Conference. After living in several towns and cities in the region, he graduated high school from Glynn Academy in Brunswick, attended college at Oxford College of Emory University (Oxford), the University of Georgia (Athens), and Skidaway Institute of Oceanography (Savannah). Following his formal schooling, he was employed by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources at its Coastal Resources Division office in Brunswick, first as a fisheries statistician and later as a marine fisheries biologist and analyst. Following his employ at DNR, Gordon worked in the waste and recycling industry for nine years, based in Brunswick and servicing all of southeast Georgia. He has also fished professionally, and taught about fishing. He became the Satilla RIVERKEEPER® and the Executive Director of the organization of the same name on September 1, 2004.

Gordon's association with the Satilla River began at age 5, when his grandfather Rogers took him in pursuit of redbreast sunfish during a Sunday-school party next to the railroad crossing at Atkinson. As a teenager he canoed on the river many times, leading a week-long cleanup project on the river as his Eagle Scout project. In his 20s, 30s, and 40s he has camped and fished on the river, and hunted the upper basin with family and friends in pursuit of quail, deer, and several species of ducks. He has conducted research on Atlantic and shortnose sturgeons in the river, and has fished the bars, channels, and shoals of its estuary both professionally and for recreation. Outside the Satilla basin, he has fished, played, and worked (fishing being more serious than work or play) in all of Georgia's other river basins, coastally from the Virginia Capes around to Louisiana, and traveled widely both nationally and internationally. Canoeing, camping, fishing (!!), and hunting are some of Gordon's favorite pastimes.

Gordon is aware of how tough it is to make a payroll and the sacrifices made by those in small business. He has been part of the "regulated community" and knows from personal experience what the realities of dealing with environmental regulation in a business setting are all about. He believes that a healthy, properly functioning environment is vital to the economic future and quality of life of those living and working in south Georgia, and that our wetlands, rivers, and underground water-supply systems are key features of proper ecological and economic function.

Gordon, his wife, Gina, and their son and daughter, Quint and Jamie Leigh, live in Waynesville and worship at College Place United Methodist Church in Brunswick. He said recently that " . . . balancing the needs of the Satilla and the rest of my life is a difficult thing to do, but focusing in their turn on my Creator, my family, my state, my country, and the Satilla helps me keep in perspective how important the waters of Georgia and the Satilla, in particular, are to our economy and our way of life. Stewardship and balance are the keys."

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