Rajendra Shivapriyan

(Lawrence Royce Rogers)

October 1, 1924 – August 4th, 2011

      Rajendra Shivapriyan (Lawrence Royce Rogers) died August 4, 2011 of pneumonia on his sailboat at Winslow Wharf Marina. He was born in Port Angeles on October 1, 1924, to Roxana Royce Rogers, and spent much of his childhood in Port Townsend before moving to Seattle, where he attended Franklin High-school. He left school in 1942 to join the Army Transport Service. For the duration of WW II he served as Ordinary Seaman and Oiler on several ATS ships carrying troops and supplies to Dutch Harbor and other military installations in the Aleutians and Alaska.

      After the war he continued in the U.S. Merchant Marine for a few years, until he married his wife Evelyn at which time he left the seafaring life. He attended Central Washington College in Ellensburg, WA, and Cornish School of Arts, Seattle, for a short time, and finally, after his daughter was born in 1952, he settled into work as elevator operator in the Smith Tower in Seattle. After his retirement and the death of his wife in the early 1990’s, he moved onto his boat at Winslow Wharf Marina. He is survived by his daughter Shirley Willers in Yakima, several grandchildren, and by his cousin and life-long friend, Bob Royce, on Bainbridge Island.

      Raj was a talented artist and writer but extremely shy, and his artistic abilities and his dry, self-effacing humor were not widely appreciated. About ten years ago, after two trips to India to visit friends in Mumbai and to spend time in the Parmarth Niketan Ashram in Rishikesh, he legally changed his name to Rajendra Shivapriyan. As he requested shortly before his death, his ashes will be sent to Parmarth Niketan for burial in, as he said, “the clean, clear waters” of the upper Ganges River. He will be sorely missed by those of us who knew him well.

      Also, at his request, there will be no memorial ceremony. However, friends may wish to promote Congressional recognition of the thousands of Merchant Seamen who served our country during WW II by urging our Representatives to support US House Bill 23. For more details please see the American Merchant Marine Veterans web-site at www.ammv.info/Just-Compensation. Raj, like most US Merchant Marine WW II veterans, was acutely aware of this neglect. Please sign the online Guest Book for the family at: www.cookfamilyfuneralhome.com.

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