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Biography
William Pierce Rogers (1913–2001) was born in Norfolk, New York. He graduated from Colgate University and received a law degree from Cornell University. He practiced law, served in the navy during World War II, and held a variety of positions in the U.S. Senate before becoming attorney general to President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1957. Between 1961 and 1968, Rogers returned to private practice but also took on public service assignments until he was appointed secretary of state by President Richard M. Nixon.
As secretary, Rogers signed the 1973 Vietnam peace agreement, as U.S. troops gradually withdrew from that regional conflict. He also addressed tensions in the Middle East, seeking to broker a lasting peace settlement among Israel, its Arab neighbors, and the Palestinian refugees, but ultimately his “Rogers Plan” was unsuccessful. Rogers brought the State Department into the electronic age by ordering the installation of a computerized system to store diplomatic documents and information.
During the administration of Ronald Reagan, Rogers came out of retirement to lead the investigation into the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.