James E. Rogan - Personal

Personal

The illegitimate son of a bartender father and cocktail waitress mother, Rogan was born in the hardscrabble Mission District of San Francisco, California. Rogan's father abandoned his mother when he learned of her pregnancy. Raised by his grandmother Helen and grandfather James Kleupfer - - a longshoreman for over 40 years on the docks of San Francisco - - Rogan was still a boy when both grandparents died. He then lived with his great aunt, Della Glover, until her death. In his early teens Rogan joined his mother and three younger siblings. The family lived on hard times: his single mother (by now a convicted felon) worked at a variety of unskilled jobs while collecting welfare and food stamps.

Rogan dropped out of high school in the tenth grade to go to work, taking a string of low-paying jobs like mopping and sweeping floors, scrubbing toilets, fast-food cook, stacking truck tires, and selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door. Although he never completed high school formally, Rogan attended Chabot Community College—now Las Positas Community College--in Livermore, California, before earning a bachelor's degree from the University of California at Berkeley, and later his J.D. degree from UCLA Law School, where he was a member of the prestigious UCLA Law Review. Rogan helped pay his way through law school by working as a bartender and bouncer at several of Hollywood and the Sunset Strip's rougher night clubs, including a Hells Angels hangout, "Filthy McNasty's," (now the Viper Room) and the legendary "Palomino Club."

Rogan married Christine Apffel in 1988; they have twin daughters.