Roger E. Vaughan, 88, died peacefully at his home in Easton, Maryland, on August 25.
Born in New Hampshire and raised in Massachusetts, Roger attended the Choate School and Brown University before embarking on his career as an internationally published writer of books, periodicals, television, the internet, and film. Beginning at The Saturday Evening Post, he went on to be a reporter, writer, and head of the Youth and Education department at LIFE magazine. He wrote 23 published books, was the founding editor of The Yacht magazine, and contributed to numerous periodicals, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Tidewater Times, and The Talbot Spy. Roger wrote about the things that most interested him: people, places, and events all around the world. He was an internationally published photographer as well as a respected editor.
Roger was a dedicated sailor, beginning at Tabor Academy summer camp. He was a mate on the 12-metre Gleam, crewed on several Bermuda races, raced on Kialoa in the deadly 1979 Fastnet race, and rounded Cape Horn on Fazisi sailing from Auckland to Punta del Este in the Whitbread. Closer to home, Roger raced in the Oxford OARS races and, finally, raced with the much-loved Oxford radio-controlled Laser fleet.
He lived and worked in Philadelphia and New York City before moving to Little Compton, Rhode Island, as a freelance writer. Roger moved to the Eastern Shore in 1980, where he worked from his home office in Oxford, overlooking the confluence of the Choptank and Tred Avon rivers, for over 40 years until he moved to Easton.
Roger was a man of his time, moving from a manual typewriter to a computer keyboard; from reading news ticker tapes to instant internet communications; from cotton sails to Kevlar and Vectran; from an old Steinway upright to a Yamaha keyboard. He was confident, curious, modest, musically literate, and always a willing, helpful friend. Roger is survived by his wife, Kippy Requardt, his stepdaughter Leigh Todd and her daughter Hannah Marie Blackwood, all of Easton; and his son Roger E. Vaughan, Jr., as well as Andrea and Sinead Vaughan, his granddaughters, of Providence, Rhode Island.
A celebration of his life will be planned for later this year. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a donation to Saving Future Feral Cats at www.savingfutureferalcats.org
Bishop Joel Marcus Johnson says
I am saddened by the loss of my friend, Roger Vaughan. Thirty-four years ago, when making the decision to move to Easton, the clincher was in his bio of the dust jacket of his intimate memoir of the conductor Herbert von Karajan, in which I read the author lived in nearby Oxford. This fact told me that Talbot County indeed had music lovers. The decision was set in stone.
Jay Corvan says
The best way to describe Roger was that he was a “peach” of a guy. Always positive and alert. Roger was always joking and had a very buoyant sense of humor. I only met Roger quite late in his life but enjoyed the time we had shared together. When we were sometimes cursing the fate of the world he would simply tune out rather than be overtly pessimistic . I’d write to him , my phone would always spellcheck His name to “ tiger” which made Kippy laugh and occasionally he would come forth with a pearl of wisdom which was the norm but always very understated. . I am forever grateful for introducing me and my extended family to heather cox Richardson who is a daily staple of ours. He will be remembered as a fine man and I’ll be grateful for knowing him. My favorite book he wrote was “ coming about” , a story about a young man finding himself. I suspect there was a piece of that wonderful story that coursed through his life. I’d recommend that book to any hearty and hale readers whose sailing and life’s adventures he illustrates so brilliantly.