USC student Mack Rogers was hit by a vehicle and killed after he ran into the street on Nov. 7 to help another person hit by a vehicle, who was also killed. His fellow students and friends in Carolina Bible Fellowship remember him for his generous and caring nature.
“One of the big papers was calling him a good Samaritan because he went to help the first person who’d been hit, and that was … his everyday — helping people and not thinking of himself,” fourth-year mathematics student Noelle Pendergraft said.
Pendergraft, strategic communication graduate student Caitlyn Jennings, fourth-year music education student Ben Markowitz and friend Jonathan Collins said Rogers was the type of person to drop everything for someone in need. They said he often drove people places when they needed help, such as driving friends across the state because they needed to buy a car, which they said happened multiple times. Markowitz said Rogers often bought him food without asking.
“Mack was the most caring, the most selfless, the most loving person,” Jennings said. “He's just the type of person that if you needed anything at all, he would literally run across campus and help you.“
Rogers, a fifth-year hospitality management student, was set to graduate in December, and Collins said his plan was to get involved in the hotel business and then eventually go overseas and share the gospel and his love for God with others. Carolina Bible Fellowship held a memorial for Rogers in the Russell House Theater on Thursday, Nov. 14, to remember Rogers and invited the community.
"All of us who knew him were impacted by his life in really profound ways. He was a brother to many of us, he was a good friend. He was reliable, he was always there," Pendergraft said. "He always had a smile on his face ... he was one of the most compassionate people that I've ever known."
“Our thoughts are with Mack’s family and friends, and he will be missed,” said Allen Wallace, communications manager for the college of hospitality, retail and sport management, in an email.
Collins said Rogers was one of the most encouraging people he had ever met. He emphasized his devotion to his faith and helping others, and Pendergraft later said in an email that Rogers loved the outdoors and sitting on the Horseshoe to do his homework. Jennings said he was good at reading people, and always knew what people needed to hear and when something was wrong.
“He had sent me all these pictures of people’s reactions in the rain, and saying how some people hide from the rain, and some people are out there just running around, arms wide open,” Jennings said. “And he said, ‘I want you to run around in the rain and just be drowned in God's love,’ and last night as I was driving back and it was raining I just remembered that and I was like, ‘Man, I just want to go run around in the rain right now.’”