National Football Foundation

After graduating from the University of Alabama, Rodgers started his own construction company in 1966. His first major job came in 1968 while walking the Augusta National golf course with a doctor from Nashville whom Rodgers was sharing a house with for the Masters. The doctor offered Rodgers a job building a hospital in Erin, Tenn. By 1970, he had built 19 hospitals for Hospital Corporation of America, and built 200 by 1979.

On the political side, Rodgers served as the Republican National Committee’s finance chairman from 1978-80. After Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980, he named Rodgers to serve on the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. In 1984, building on his continued fundraising efforts for Republican candidates, he was the finance chief for Reagan's 1984 re-election campaign. In recognition of his work, Reagan named him in 1985 to a four-year term as the United States Ambassador to France. Rodgers passed away in 2009 at the age of 75.