DRI gets record gift from television mogul Rogers

Jennifer Knight

Tuesday, May 13, 2003 | 8:43 a.m.

The largest donation in the history of the Desert Research Institute was given as an homage to a father.

Jim Rogers, chairman of Sunbelt Communications, pledged $3 million to DRI to build a new research facility and museum to honor his father, Frank Rogers, who was an instrumental figure in the creation of the Nevada Test Site.

"I think what we did out there (at the Test Site) was develop a tremendous deterrent system against people really fooling with the United States," Rogers said. "The people who started this have probably not been recognized as much as they should have been."

A third of the money will pay for a new center for environmental contaminant detection and cleanup. The remainder of the donation will pay for a 66,000-square-foot addition to DRI's campus on East Flamingo Road, which will bear the name of Rogers' father.

The addition will create new laboratory space as well as house the Atomic Testing Museum, which will chronicle the efforts of scientists, support personnel and engineers who came to Nevada after World War II to start the atomic testing facility 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The 8,000-square-foot museum will highlight the Test Site's role during the Cold War and feature traveling exhibits from the Smithsonian Institute.

The new facility will also create the nation's first archive of declassified Cold War documents for scholars and the public to access.

"This is a big step for us to be honored and recognized by Jim Rogers who is one the most important philanthropists of his time," said DRI President Stephen Wells.

Rogers was contacted by DRI and agreed to the donation because of the connection with his father and the Test Site.

Jim Rogers was just 13 when his family moved to Las Vegas. His father was part of a team of businessmen who came to Nevada in the 1940s with the charge of creating the Test Site.

Sworn to secrecy, Rogers said he never really knew what his father did, only that he was a key figure to the project. Frank Rogers died at age 80.

"Because it was so secretive for so long, no one was ever really able to talk about what they did," Rogers said.

"And when it came time to talk about it, many of those people were dead. Luckily, the history of the Test Site is still being put together by people who are still alive."