Mover & shaper

Pottery is newest passion for man with many skills

BY ELLEN GILLETTE

Jerry Rogak’s mother may have considered him a “bum” at one time, but this Port St. Lucie potter has never been idle for long.

Born in Brooklyn, Rogak grew up within walking distance of most of his extended family. His father made ice cream, giving away mounds of butter each week that had formed in the bottom of the batches. His mother was an accountant for Pan Am.

Rogak’s zadie — a Yiddish term of endearment for “grandfather” — insisted that he attend Hebrew school from an early age. By the time he was 6, he’d walk two blocks to the trolley, then ride it to school by himself.

“It was a different world,” Rogak said. “You didn’t think twice about it.”

At the Orthodox school, or yeshiva, Rogak had Hebrew in the morning, with English lessons in other subjects each afternoon. “If I didn’t learn, I came home with bleeding knuckles. They were pretty tough on you.”

Rogak thought life would be easier when his father enrolled him in public school. He was wrong. After “regular” school, his mother saw to it that he also attended the Crown Heights yeshiva.

When Rogak was 13, his family moved to the Jackson Heights neighborhood in Queens. After he graduated from Newtown High School, he attended City College, played basketball, learned to play the bongos and — encouraged by an uncle — took accounting classes. “I hated it.”

Fortuitously going another route, Rogak worked in the mailroom of Scholastic Magazines just when companies started using IBM accounting machines: the forerunners of computers. “I got friendly with the guys who were running them and, at lunch, they taught me.”

Those tutoring sessions paid off. Rogak ran machines for several months, then worked as a computer operator for the company that made Q-Tips. He also went to IBM school. “You had to wire the computers, basically telling the machines what to do,” he explained. “They were huge.”

By the time Rogak landed a programmer job with Clairol on Fifth Avenue, the Cuban Missile Crisis loomed large. So did the Vietnam War.

“I didn’t want to get drafted,” Rogak said. “My father knew someone in the New York National Guard and got me in.” 

After basic training, Rogak trained as a medic at Fort Sam Houston in Texas. “We did everything a nurse would do. It was better than Nam. Some of my friends came back. Some didn’t.”

SLIPPERY SLOPES

Winters, Rogak and his buddies went on weekend ski trips to hang out and “meet girls.” Starting out, they rented skis, boots and other gear. But after a few weeks, Rogak fell in love with the sport, bought equipment and took lessons. The ski student became a ski instructor.

As the bus unloaded after one trip, Rogak noticed Ann, a pretty girl asking for a ride to Hicksville, on Long Island. Her friend was headed to Jackson Heights. Rogak offered to give the friend a ride, then drop Ann off at the train station — only to discover that there were no more trains running that day. When Rogak took Ann to another friend’s house, he asked for her phone number. 

They married three years later.

After living in a Jackson Heights apartment for several years — and having several babies — they moved to a “splanch” on Long Island: a popular split-level ranch design. Ann returned to the arduous task of training as a court reporter when the children were older; eventually she served the New York Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Rogak’s career took him in different directions. “You’d finish one project, then it was time to move on.” A Director of IT position led him to start his own consulting firm in 1979. Contracting with IBM, his company designed computer software and expanded operations. “It was a gold mine,” he said. “The whole concept was wonderful.”

GOLF & GOALS

Rogak had also taken up golf before meeting Ann, one of the reasons his mother warned her, when they met, that he was a “bum.” Skiing and golf didn’t fit her concept of success, ignoring the fact that multiple day jobs kept him plenty busy. Golf was just one way to relax.

Driving home alone one afternoon in 1991 following 36 holes, Rogak suffered a myocardial infarction: a massive heart attack. He had an angioplasty, went through rehab and slowed down — a bit. After a consulting job with Touro College in Manhattan, he even retired.

Temporarily.

“He was so good at golf, he could’ve turned pro,” Ann said. “He asked if I would support him if he went on tour. It was the only time I told him, ‘No.’”

Instead, Rogak was certified as an instructor, eventually affiliated with PGA. When New York courses closed in winter, he taught in Tampa. Ann flew down some weekends until she retired, convincing Rogak to stop working “for good” and move to the East Coast. They had a home built in the Cascades development of St. Lucie West.

Rogak noticed that the clubhouse included two kilns. “I’d never done pottery, but I always admired it,” he said. “When the kids were at camp, I’d watch a man at a nearby cottage throw [clay on a wheel]. He was just...in heaven.” 

Rogak joined the Cascades’ newly organized Clay Club and also trained with other potters.

“When you create something, there’s such a feeling of goodness, of joy. You see something in your mind and you wonder, what kind of texture can I make? How do I get it on the clay in a way that’s different? What if I carve it this way?”

Rogak has had several exhibitions at what is now the Mid-Florida Event Center and has sold out at the Botanical Gardens’ Holiday Lights event. He maintains, however, that pottery is a hobby, not a business. Each year, he invites Cascades residents to register their grandchildren for a special holiday project in December. Rogak prepares items for them to paint and fire, weeks in advance. 

“We may have 25 to 50 kids,” he said. “Some have come for three or four years. Others are now 18 or 20.”

Now a zadie himself, Rogak golfs on Saturdays with Ann and travels the world. But every week that he’s local, he can probably be found at a potter’s wheel creating new pieces — such as the vases he made for a daughter’s wedding last year.

Most of the original Clay Club members are no longer around, but age has not deterred Rogak. “I create pieces that are special to me. The only thing that restricts you, as a potter, is your own imagination.”

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JERRY ROGAK

Age: 86

Lives in: the Cascades, Port St. Lucie

Occupation: Retired computer programmer

Family: Wife Ann, one son, two daughters, four grandchildren

Education: High school, some college, training classes for various certifications

Hobbies: Golf and pottery

Who inspires me: “Years ago a woman I worked with back in the 60s — Pauline — made bracelets to sell on the side. I started tying knots as relaxation, and it got to a point where I was doing macrame. A friend encouraged me to do a show, which I did at Smith Haven Mall, and eventually, I sold to A & S, a huge department store on Long Island. And Pauline inspired me to get started.”

Something most people don’t know about me: “I was a ski instructor.”