About Roger DeGennaro
This page is a tribute to Roger DeGennaro, celebrating his life, work, and the positive impact he had on those around him. It features photos of Roger with friends and family, highlighting his interests and his life in NYC. Here, friends are invited to share testimonials, stories and anecdotes that capture the essence of who Roger was.
Biography
Roger was born in Glen Clove, Long Island on August 6, 1960. More info about that. His family moved to Vermont when he was a teenager.
He graduated as Valedictorian from his High School in 1978. He attended college at Amherst in Massachusetts and graduated with a BA in Sociology in 1982. Roger moved to NYC in the mid 1980s and lived in an apartment on Avenue B for 40 years until his passing on February 11, 2025.
Professional Work: Roger worked primarily as a copy editor during his career, with stints as an IT professional and a paralegal at a couple of law firms including Clifford Chance in the 1990s. He worked as an editor, writer and content manager and web producer for for many companies and publications including Conde Nast, Barnes & Noble, Lime TV, Marthastewart.com, the Official NYC Guide, NYC & Company, Vanity Fair, Panasonic, Baruch College Library/CUNY, various technology websites including Future Cities, Design News, EE Times, and at HIMMS, a nonprofit healthcare organization.
Creative Work: Roger was an aspiring writer in the 1980s and 1990s. He wrote several plays, short stories and a novel. Some of his work was performed on stage and on the radio. Roger also created visual art and his work was shown at some gallery exhibits in the 1990s. His work was mentioned in an Art in an America magazine article. You can find his written works and visual art on the portfolio page.
Share Your Memories
Contribute to Roger's memorial by sharing your cherished memories and testimonials. Your stories help paint a fuller picture of his life and the impact he had on our community. Help us celebrate the life of Roger DeGennaro by leaving a lasting tribute on this page.
Testimonials from friends and family
I met Roger in 1987 through a mutual friend. We soon started dating and were together for 3 years. Roger was handsome, and had a sharp, and sometimes acerbic, wit. He was an aspiring playwright, and he introduced me to the downtown theater scene. We saw a lot of Off Off Broadway shows at places like PS 122, Dixon Place, La Mama, Theater for the New City, and Wow Cafe. We went to see live music at local venues like the Gas Station, Webster Hall, the Pyramid Club and even the 6BC Garden. The East Village in the late 1980s and early 1990s was a relatively inexpensive place, and we could go out to eat a good meal at the Indian Restaurants on East 6th St. and the Ukrainian and Polish restaurants in the East Village. Yafa Cafe, Cafe Mogador, Sidewalk Cafe, 7A and Life Cafe were also popular places for us to go for brunch. After we broke up, we still enjoyed going to theater and concerts, although there were gaps where we didn't see much of each other. In more recent years, we would occasionally meet up at the Boiler Room or the Phoenix Bar, some of Roger's favorite haunts. The past 2 years, Roger often came to my house to cat sit while I was traveling. He enjoyed getting out of his studio apartment and coming to my place to enjoy the backyard garden. He was an avid gardener, and a longtime member of the garden at 6 and B. He sometimes brought me seeds to plant. I'm glad I have some perennials in my garden to remember him by. I had read a couple of Roger's works when he was alive and seen his play "Pressures of the Flesh" which was really good, but it was only after he passed in February, 2025 that I found out he had written a number of other pieces. I'm glad to be involved in helping to preserve and share his writing with this website.
Steve Herrick