Richard Reid Rogers

Who was Richard Reid Rogers?

Richard Reid Rogers was a prominent United States lawyer, specializing in transit law. Married to Eunice Tomlin, their daughter Elizabeth Reid Rogers married into the German nobility and the House of Hesse, by marrying Prince Christian of Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld and being titled Baroness von Barchfeld.

Rogers graduated in 1886 from Princeton University before studying law at the University of Virginia. He served as the general counsel to both the Isthmian Canal Commission and later the Panama Railroad Company. He subsequently was counsel to the Metropolitan Street Railway and several of its successor companies.

On June 20, 1906, Rogers was appointed as general counsel to the Isthmian Canal Commission, to replace outgoing Governor Charles Edward Magoon. In November of that year, President Theodore Roosevelt temporarily abolished the office of Governor of the Panama Canal Zone, to give greater autonomy to the chief engineer of the canal project. This order placed all of the duties of the Governor on the general counsel, in effect making Rogers the Governor in all but title.