Roger Hall Hinderliter Obituary
Canandaigua - Roger Hall Hinderliter, age 82, passed away Friday, December 30, 2022, after a brief illness. He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Suzanne "Suzie"; two daughters and sons-in-law, Justine and Dave, Debora and Jeremy; four grandchildren, Zeus, Aquila, Johannes and Nikolaj.
Roger, in his long life, was a keeper of pet geese (Bugs and Elmer), a mechanic at a retread tire shop, a moonshine runner and poker player--before finding his love of learning and teaching. He was fond of telling stories of transformation, which always ended with why education is important.
Roger was born in Wichita, Kansas to Frances Hall and Richard Hinderliter. His father passed away when Roger was only 4 and his two older sisters, Donna and Joyce, helped his mother raise him. His mother worked in an ice cream factory and at the end of the day, Roger and the other neighborhood kids would run to greet her bus and see what goodies she brought home. As an adult, Roger never said no to money for ice cream, a fact his children and grandchildren knew well.
Although he was an avid reader from a very early age, he was, by all accounts, a mediocre high school student with more promise than actual results. Somehow, he managed to enroll at Wichita State University where he got mostly D's and F's in his first year. A much beloved WSU Dean (who in this story was never given an actual name) pulled him aside, told him he was way too smart to be getting anything other than A's and asked him what kind of life he wanted for himself. He changed his major to Business and Economics and the rest, as they say, is history. Coming home to tell his mother he had received a full-ride scholarship for a Ph.D. in Economics to Washington University in St. Louis was one of his proudest moments.
In St. Louis, Roger not only completed his Ph.D., but met and married his wife of 56 years, fellow Wash U graduate student, Suzie. They shared many adventures together, traveling extensively in Europe where they honed their love for finding old maps and scales, spending time in used bookstores and trying new foods. The Hinderliter table would remain diverse and interesting throughout their years together with favorites such as Hangtown fry, gooseberry pie, monster salads and paella. Until the end, Roger enjoyed finding recipes from the New York Times for Suzie to make.
In 1970, after they both finished graduate school, Roger took his first professorship at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He taught there for several years, but after the birth of their first daughter, Debora, decided to take a job at the Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland, OH. Their second daughter, Justine was born there, and they had several happy years in Shaker Heights. His girls loved running down Torrington Road to meet him when he came home on the Rapid Transit.
It was also here where many of the family's Christmas traditions started. Roger was a great lover of Christmas. He cultivated Christmas-- music, traditions, recipes. At some point in the 1980s, he began to tell the stories of the Christmas elves. The first was Elmer, who was helping Santa, now that Santa was himself, a very old elf. Young elves, such as Elmer, Roger explained, have to specialize, they do not have enough experience to give just any gift. Elmer started as an expert in music, gifting young Debora and Justine cassette tapes. Over the years, Elmer was joined by other elves, some stopping by for only a short time, like Bertha the birthing elf. Others like Ms. Claus, an expert in the culinary arts and Olaf the outdoor elf became part of the elf lineup. The elves will live on.
Shortly after starting as an economist at the Fed, Roger realized he missed teaching immensely. He started adjuncting at Case Western and Cleveland State and knew quickly he belonged back in the classroom for good. In 1986, Roger accepted a professorship at Ithaca College where he would teach Economics until his retirement in 2015.
The family moved to Salmon Creek Road in Lansing, a beloved old farmhouse that was under a state of renovation for their entire 30 years there. It was in the side yard and grove that Roger taught his girls to play Kick the Can, cut the grass with a riding mower and to hate hauling water from the creek for the garden when there was not enough rain. Lansing had a wonderful school community. Roger loved watching his girls perform in many plays and cheering Justine on in volleyball. He loved, in particular, getting to see Justine sing and never tired of threatening to find the old VHS tapes of her performances in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Fiddler on the Roof. From those early days at Lansing schools, Roger and Suzie developed friendships in the community that grew in the many years after the girls moved on to their own adventures. Later, both Justine and Debora would bring their own families to the Salmon Creek house. Jeremy and Roger spent many hours smoking their pipes, listening to music and enjoying beers from around the world. All of the grandkids were able to discover Salmon Creek before Roger and Suzie moved to the Canandaigua area-- this was a comfort to him in making the difficult decision to leave Lansing.
Returning to teaching full-time proved to be a wise decision. Teaching at IC was his true love. Often an introvert in his non-teaching life, Roger became nearly a different person in the classroom and his love for his students was palpable in any conversation about his classes. He shared a deep respect for his colleagues. He enjoyed their discussions, especially with the late Dr. Frank Musgrave, a close friend, who was his ideological opposite. Their debates were intense, and Roger loved them. He was truly committed to the purity of a liberal arts education and as such, he developed a healthy dislike for college administrators, but never failed to tell his daughter, Debora, who became a college administrator at FLCC that she was the only good kind of administrator, because she lived and breathed the classroom. It is the many lives he impacted as a professor, the students, who are now professionals in so many different fields and the love of learning he passed to his daughters and his grandchildren that will remain his greatest legacy.
Although their time in the Canandaigua area was short, Roger used the time to discover online poker, which his family found hilarious, and to frequent Sulfur Books in Clifton Springs to support his serious reading of American and European history. He, of course, also continued to enjoy a few adventures with Suzie and their friends and time with his grandchildren. Most recently, he and Justine's son Zeus completed their first book, the Adventures of Ripley and Zed. This and all of his stories, those written, those lived and those told, will be remembered and honored.
Friends may call Sunday, January 8, from 1-3 pm, at Johnson-Kennedy Funeral Home, Inc., 47 N. Main St., Canandaigua. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Lansing Theater and Performing Arts Booster Club (LTAPA), c/o Lansing High School, 300 Ridge Rd., Lansing, NY 14882 or online at https://givebutter.com. It's an organization of which Roger was the founding treasurer, and which supports all things arts at Lansing Central Schools, including scholarships. Arrangements are by Johnson-Kennedy Funeral Home, Inc., Canandaigua.
