Always fascinated by railroads, canals, the antebellum era, and social justice issues, Rog naturally gravitated to his first career as a high school history teacher. After ten years of inspiring young people, he yielded to passions for which he had no formal training: co-owning a summer camp, farming, founding a participatory science museum, co-owning a wilderness expedition program for teenagers, teaching entrepreneurship at the college level, woodworking, and leading a rural arts organization.

As an author, he draws lore and wisdom from all those professions, and joy from the thought that he is once again making history come alive to his constituents.
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Rog and his wife lived and worked on a farm in Central Pennsylvania for forty-one years. They currently reside in Massachusetts with their Great Dane and cat. They have three adult children and two grandchildren.