Carol Rogers arrived in Montauk in 1984, after her first husband had died, and she found work at the Montauk Downs golf course and Montauk Point State Park. “Her favorite job,” according to her family, “was managing the Montauk Point parking toll booth, which she ruled with an iron fist, while finding time to read a good book.”
“The tale of her refusing to grant Sir Paul McCartney his free parking request, even though it was only 15 minutes to closing, is epic.”
She and her second husband, Kenny Rogers, made a home together in the hamlet. He died in 2000, and she continued to work at the state park through the fall of last year, “while finding time to go on many adventures with both her children and her grandchildren — only one of which she ever lost and only for an hour,” her family deadpanned.
Ms. Rogers died on July 16 at home in Montauk. She was 87.
Her family described her as a lifelong reader and something of a brain, saying she was the first person in Nassau County to earn a perfect score on the verbal portion of the country’s most anxiety-inducing test, the SAT.
She was at West Hempstead High School at the time, graduating with the class of 1954 and going on to double-major in English and chemistry at Adelphi University in Garden City. When she finished there, she went to work as a chemistry research assistant.
On Feb. 13, 1962, she married Karol Wieslaw Olczak, and they settled in Moriches. She stayed at home to raise their three sons.
“Carol had a strong sense of civic duty and performed frequent acts of volunteerism,” her family said. “This included enlisting her sons to help with the building and organizing of the new public library and playground” for their community.
“Carol was a skilled gardener and home canner. Her yard was filled with gardens, and her wild strawberry jam was legendary.”
Her enthusiasm for culture and the arts led her to take her sons on frequent trips to museums and theaters in New York City.
Mr. Olczak died of cancer in 1983 at the age of 56, and the following year she moved out east.
Carol Helen Olczak Rogers was born in New York City on Sept. 7, 1936, to Earl Thoren and the former Helen Johnson. Her mother died when Carol was 3 years old.
She is survived by her three sons, David Olczak of Kings Park, Eugene Olczak of Pittsford, N.Y., and his wife, Kelly, and Andrew Olczak of Groton, Conn., and his wife, Marielena, and by six grandchildren: Grace, Liam, Andrew Jr., Alexander, Danna, and Jake. She is also survived by a sister, Linda Hanna of Shirley, and a niece, Amy LaBossiere of Hartford.
“No matter what ups and downs Carol faced during her lifetime, she always showed unconditional love for her family,” they said. “Nothing else was more important to her than love.”
A celebration of Ms. Rogers’s life was held on Tuesday at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Amagansett, where she was a member.
