John Ephraim Powell Rogers was born on a farm in Missouri. He applied himself to his studies and became a school teacher, for a time. In 1908 he moved to Oklahoma to become a stenographer for his brother Harry, an attorney. Deciding he liked the law, Rogers studied at the University of Oklahoma and graduated from the School of Law in 1914 to join his brother’s firm. Among their clients was the oil company owned by Robert M. McFarlin and James A. Chapman, who became the principal clients of John Rogers. During the remainder of his career he worked closely with McFarlin and Chapman to prove and develop oil fields in Oklahoma and nearby states. Rogers was a leader to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, a founder of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, lay leader in the Disciples of Christ Church, regent on several university boards, developer and Dean of the College of Law at the University of Tulsa, and an important member of numerous federal, state, civic, business, and religious boards and commissions.