A Friend, a
Mentor, an Inspiration
Fortnightly
4/16/25
Johnny Hilton
We all have special people in our lives that have
made an impact on us. These special
people could include our parents, siblings, colleagues, and friends. Tonight I want to share the story of one of
those special people that has made a positive difference in my life. That person is Roger Ackerman. Roger’s life story is one of love,
generosity, and perseverance. This
evening I will attempt to share events from his life that highlight those
characteristics.
Roger was born on March 11, 1932, in Wadesboro,
NC. As with many families during that time, his
was facing hardships as a result of the “Great Depression”. Shortly after his birth, his family, dad, mom
and older sister, moved in with his maternal grandparents in Bishopville, SC,
where he spent the first four years of his life. The family all slept in one bedroom. During this time his father worked as a traveling
salesman, selling men’s caps. When Roger
was four, his family moved to Wallace, NC, where the family opened a “Ben
Franklin” five and dime store on Main Street. Roger’s dad couldn’t think of a name for the
store at first but somehow, it was dubbed “Roger’s 5, 10, and 25c store.” Roger starting working in the store as a stock
boy when he was 5. When he was 7, he was
allowed to stand on a coke crate so he could see over the counter to wait on
other children. Working in the store was a great experience for Roger and the
lessons learned stayed with him all his life. With Roger being an outgoing, “never
met a stranger” kind of guy, there was no doubt he contributed to the stores
popularity. His favorite thing to sell
in the store were records, as he was allowed to play the records in order to
promote the sale. Roger wrote a
Fortnightly paper entitled “Roger’s 5-10-25 cent store – Growing up in a Mom
& Pop Dime Store” that shares delightful memories of his family, the store,
and the people of Wallace. He was
blessed with a close-knit, loving family from whom he learned loyalty,
devotion, respect, a strong work ethic, generosity, independence, the rewards
of friendship, and pride in his faith.
Roger was an excellent student making straight A’s
through all his years of school in Wallace.
During high school he was elected president of the N.C. Association of
Jewish Youth, and was president of the high school Beta Club. Roger also excelled in sports, playing both
baseball and football. He was a co-captain
of the Wallace football team which had a perfect season his senior year. Roger applied to attend UNC Chapel Hill and was
actually recruited to play football at UNC but chose not to do so. Roger was accepted at UNC in Chapel Hill and
majored in Business and Economics. While there, he excelled academically, being
inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and participated in ROTC. Upon graduation, he served two years in the
United States Air Force. By the way,
Roger was a “dyed in the wool, true blue” Tar-Heel fan his entire life!! That story could warrant a paper all its own.
After his discharge from the Air Force, Roger got a
job selling office equipment for a short time.
Meanwhile, his sister had married a man who owned a “scrap metal” recycling
business in Goldsboro, NC. Seeing a
better opportunity, Roger went to work for his brother-in-law in Goldsboro in
the “Scrap Business.” Shortly after going
to work with his brother-in-law, Roger attended “The Annual International Scrap
Dealers Convention” at the Fountainbleau Hotel in Miami Beach. There were folks there in the scrap industry from
all over the country. The attendees
included a couple who owned a scrap business in Galesburg, Ill, who had brought
their daughter along with them to the convention. Somehow, during the opening cocktail party, a
gentleman that knew both Roger and the family from Galesburg, managed to
introduce Roger to the daughter. Bingo!
Roger was smitten. He asked the daughter
if she would like to join him and some friends for dinner, whereupon the
daughter turned and asked her mother if it was OK. Mom replied that it was. Roger and the daughter met up with two other
couples, and they had dinner together.
During dinner, the daughter noticed that Roger was continuously looking
at her and smiling. The daughter
inquired, “Why do you keep looking at me?” Roger replied “It makes me happy to
look at you.” After dinner he asked “Would
you like to dance?”
Over the next two days Roger skipped the conference
meetings and he and the daughter spent a lot of time together on the beach and
by the pool talking, mostly about their families and the experiences of their
childhood, both having grown up in small towns.
On day four Roger had to go back to Goldsboro but called the daughter
from the Miami airport. This was the
beginning of a “telephone romance.” The
daughter and her family returned to Illinois.
Roger and the daughter talked on the phone every evening after
that. Soon Roger got on a plane and went
to Galesburg. Next thing you know, the
daughter flew down to Goldsboro to meet Roger’s family. It was
“love at first sight,” a whirlwind romance and they were soon married. And, of course, as you all have known all
along, the daughter was Deane. The
newlyweds took up residence in Goldsboro as Roger was working with his
brother-in-law in the scrap metal business there.
This was soon to change, however. Roger was offered a job as manager of
Addelstone Iron and Metal Co. in Sumter.
Roger and Deane moved to Sumter and rented the Addelstone’s house on
Frank Clark Street as the Addelstones had moved to Charleston to run a business
there. Roger soon joined the Sumter Rotary Club and
then began a term on the board of The Sumter Chamber of Commerce. Roger and Deane loved Sumter and made many
friends and became involved in many community activities and organizations. Before long, Roger and Deane had built and
moved to their own home on Snowden Street.
When Mr. Addelstone sold his business in Sumter to Steelmart, a national
corporation, Roger decided to go into business for himself and opened Ackerman
Metals.
Roger and Deane became very involved in the arts community
in Sumter. Deane was a gifted artist,
initially working as a sculptor. She did sculptured busts of many young Sumterites. She later worked with stained glass, ball
point pen, graphite and colored pencils.
Deane was also involved in the Sumter Little Theatre. Roger made his “performance début” when he
won the lead in The Sumter Little Theatre’s production of the “Music Man.” During the rehearsals for the musical, it
came to be known by the cast that Roger not only knew his lines, but knew
almost all of the lines of the entire cast for the entire show. The production was sold out every night and
actually was carried over into extra performances. To many folks in Sumter, Roger came to be
known and remembered as the “Music Man.”
Ackerman Metals in Sumter was doing well. Roger then decided to expand and bought two
other recycling businesses, Orangeburg Metal in Orangeburg SC, and McCabe’s
Scrap Iron Co., which belonged to Deane’s family in Galesburg, Ill. Deane’s father had expressed his wish to
retire and Roger made that possible by purchasing the business. Roger hired a high school classmate of Deane’s
to manage the company. Roger and Deane
made frequent trips to Galesburg to check on the business there and to spend
time with Deane’s parents and friends.
Shortly after Roger’s performance in the Music Man,
he was elected President of the Sumter Rotary Club. Because of his exemplary practice of “service
above self”, which is the Rotary motto, he was soon named Sumter Rotarian of
the Year and Rotary District 7770 Rotarian of the Year. District 7770 includes the southern half of
our state. Roger and Deane’s commitment
to the arts continued with Roger serving on the planning committee for the establishment
of Patriot Hall, and serving on the board of the Sumter Little Theatre. The YMCA recognized Roger as “Humanitarian of
the Year”
It was about this time that Deane’s mom began to
show signs of cognitive decline, and as she grew older, the full blown
crippling effects of Alzheimer’s became apparent. Roger and Deane continued making trips to
Galesburg to check on the business and to help Deane’s mom. It was devastating to both Roger and Deane to
witness her mom’s dementia. Roger saw
first hand the sadness and suffering that Alzheimer’s caused, not only for the
individual afflicted with the disease, but also for the family members and
caregivers dealing with the illness. He
resolved to “do something about it.” Roger
knew that medical research was the key to finding the cause and possible
cure. He set out to find a way to provide
funding for Alzheimer’s research. He
discussed his thoughts with the board of the Sumter Rotary Club and was certain
that Rotarians could make a difference by emptying their pockets of change at
each meeting which could produce significant funds to support Alzheimer’s
research. In October of 1995 the project
began in the Sumter Rotary Club. The
response of the Sumter Club was overwhelmingly positive. Coins for Alzheimer’s Research Trust, The CART
Fund, was the name given the project.
CART was introduced at the next Rotary District conference and was a hit. During the next year, Roger and members of
the Sumter Rotary made presentations to Rotary Clubs across the Rotary District
and the CART fund took off. One of the
key points of CART was Roger’s idea that 100% of contributions go to research. All expenses are paid from interest earned on
investments.
One of the primary goals of CART is to provide “seed
money for cutting edge research.” The
CART fund has been awarded the Angel Award by the State of SC for good
stewardship of charitable resources. The
CART Fund is now in Rotary Clubs throughout the eastern United States. Since its’ inception, CART has awarded over
$13 million in grants to research hospitals and universities across the country. This June, at the CART annual board meeting,
we will celebrate CART’s 30th anniversary and we will award an additional
$2 million in research grants to six Alzheimer’s research scientists. Deane’s mother’s Alzheimer’s was the catalyst
for the creation of the CART Fund and Roger’s vision made it a reality.
About the time the CART fund was taking off, Roger
sold, one by one, all of his businesses, McCabe’s in Illinois, Ackerman Metals here
in Sumter and Orangeburg Metals.
Retirement allowed Roger to focus on the CART fund
and for he and Deane to travel more.
Roger and Deane loved to travel. This
love for travel really grew when they attended the Rotary International
Convention in Tokyo, Japan. As the years
went by, they enjoyed numerous trips all over the world. Their travels included Spain, Greece, France,
Italy, Israel, Egypt, India, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Bora
Bora, Korea, Thailand, China, and Nepal. Roger and Deane were such social people and
they enjoyed making new friends as they traveled. They also loved to spend time at their house at
Hilton Head and were huge fans of Spoleto, often spending several weeks in
Charleston during the festival, taking in as many of the events as possible.
Retirement also allowed Roger’s commitment to
community to grow. He was instrumental
in the creation of the new home for the Sumter Gallery of Art and served on the
board of Covenant Place. Roger served as
president of the congregation of Temple Sinai and chairman of the Jewish cemetery
committee. As the Jewish community in
Sumter continued to dwindle so did the congregation at the Temple. It was Roger’s vision and leadership that
insured the future of the Temple and helped preserve its’ rich history. Initially an agreement was reached with the
Charleston Jewish Federation to provide for the preservation of the
Temple. Ultimately, Roger, along with Jay
Schwartz, Ray Reich, Annie Rivers, and Frank Edwards, were able to establish an
affiliation with the Sumter County Museum.
This new relationship led to the Temple evolving into the Temple Sinai
Jewish History Center and the creation of the Holocaust Exhibit in what was originally
the fellowship hall of the Temple. It is
well worth a visit.
As Roger’s community service continued so did the
recognition of his contributions. Roger
was named District 7770 Rotarian of the year a second time, and also received
the Rotary International Service Above Self Award, a world-wide award, being
the highest honor given to an individual Rotarian. He also received the Order of the Palmetto,
the highest civilian honor awarded to a citizen of our State.
Roger and Deane were a “family-oriented” couple. They both grew up in close knit loving
families that instilled in them the same values they exhibited within their own
family here in Sumter. Roger excelled in
business and in community service but his greatest joy came to him through his
family. Roger and Deane had three
children, Matthew, Polly, and Angela, who were the light of Roger’s life. Whether it was helping with homework,
attending dance recitals, performances at the Little Theatre, or camping out
with the “Indian Guides”, Roger was always there for his kids.
Their most special family time was spent at the beach. Roger’s parents overcame the hardships of the
depression as Roger’s Five and Dime in Wallace, NC gradually became a
success. So much so that Roger’s parents
bought a beach house at Wrightsville Beach, NC.
The house was an old fashioned classic beach house that would hold lots
of family. During the summer months,
Roger, Deane, the kids, and their extended family were at the beach every
weekend making family memories to last a lifetime. Roger was a family man. As Roger once wrote “I have such a wonderful family
and I feel so loved and cared for. I love spending time with them.”
So what is Roger’s Legacy? Roger was many things to many people. Husband, father, friend, mentor, patron of
the arts, philanthropist, business man, a Rotarian, a Fortnighter, a clerk in a
Five and Dime, a music man, a visionary, a planner, and a Tar Heel. He was an
open, loving, strong, and happy man.
The CART Fund, The Temple Sinai Jewish History
Center, The Little Theatre, the Art Gallery, these certainly are part of that
legacy. The INSPIRE! Festival was
created to help us remember Roger and to support those things that were dear to
him and important to our community and our world. Roger
Ackerman was a unique individual. He was
a special guy and yet he was as plain as an old shoe to everyone who knew
him. He didn’t know a stranger and he
treated everyone in a sincere and genuine way as if they were an old and
trusted friend. It was an honor, a
privilege, and a blessing to have been his friend. He was indeed a friend, a mentor, and an inspiration.
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