W. R. Rodgers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William Robert Rodgers (1909 – 1969), known as Bertie, was a poet, writer, broadcaster, academic and Presbyterian minister from Northern Ireland. He is remembered for his poems, his radio work on Irish literary figures, and his non-sectarian attitude.

He was born in Belfast, and studied at the Queen's University of Belfast. He was ordained in 1935, and worked as a minister in Loughgall, County Armagh. He gave up his ministry in 1946, following a troubled period in which his wife, a doctor, had been subject to mental illness.

He started work as a scriptwriter for the BBC in London, and became a freelance writer in 1953. In 1966 he moved to California, initially at Pitzer College and then to a position at California State Polytechnic. He died in Los Angeles.