Celebrating the Life of Chet Rodgers: 1995

"I went to middle school with Chet. I teach first grade now, and always work really hard to teach my students the importance of standing up for others. I try to help them understand that it's important to help when you see someone getting bullied, even if it's someone you don't know very well.

Just yesterday I was thinking back to my middle school years, and oddly enough, had a memory about Chet- When I was in 6th grade at Westwood, Chet and I were in Chorus together. I loved singing, but I always dreaded the class because there was another boy who always made fun of me. This student made fun of the way I looked, and made fun of me because I was Indian (and believe me, in 1992, there weren't that many other Indian kids at school!) When I was thinking about this, I also remembered the day that Chet came to my defense, and basically told the other kid 'hey, we all look different' and told the kid to leave me alone. While Chet and I were never close friends, his simple act made such a big difference in my life at the time. The fact was that he had the courage to stand up for someone else.

My family moved to Connecticut in 1995, and I recently moved to New Jersey for a new teaching job. Of course, facebook keeps everyone in touch these days, and this memory I had yesterday touched me so much, that today, I thought I would look up Chet on facebook. I had not heard of Chet's passing, and when I saw the memorial blog I was overcome with emotion.
I know that many years have passed since, but I thought you should know that Chet is still touching people's lives, just as he always did. He was a person that truly brought his heart and character to everything he did in life, both for himself and others, and he is well remembered."
---Sumitra Ratneshwar