W. R. Rodgers - Later Life

Later Life

Rodgers stayed at the BBC as a full-time producer and scriptwriter until 1953 when he went free-lance. He produced a highly innovative series of radio broadcasts on Irish literary figures: Irish literary portraits. He was elected a life member of the Irish Academy of Letters in 1951 to fill the vacancy due to the death of George Bernard Shaw and was a member of the Literature and Poetry Panel of the Arts Council of Great Britain and a board member of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. His wife died in 1953, following a period of illness. In the same year he married Marianne Gilliam (née Helweg) the ex-wife of his immediate boss in the BBC, Lawrence Gilliam. They lived in England until 1966 when Rodgers secured a post as writer in residence at Pitzer College, Claremont, California and later a lecturing post at California State Polytechnic. In 1968 he was awarded a life annuity of £100 by the Dublin Arts Council as an acknowledgement of his distinction in letters and of the honour which his literary work had reflected on Ireland. He died in 1969 in Los Angeles and was buried at Loughgall, County Armagh.