From its beginnings in Roxbury, Hella Black Triva grew rapidly in popularity as gatherings expanded at cafés, restaurants, and universities. “It’s really about opening people’s minds to what Black trivia could be,” he told WBUR-FM in 2020.
Mr. Rogers, whose sharp knowledge of arcane facts and details about past Black experiences often reached beyond the grasp of those who were historians by trade, died Sept. 7 after collapsing at a friend’s home. He was 43, lived in Dorchester, and tests to determine the cause are pending, his family said.
“What’s remarkable about his work was that he was finding intriguing and innovative ways to make Black history relevant,” said Noelle N. Trent, president and chief executive of the Museum of African American History, Boston and Nantucket, which partnered with Mr. Rogers in June for a Hella Black Trivia event.
“This is a loss that I think will be felt across the community,” Trent said, “and that says he left a mark that was meaningful.”
Friends recalled that as a trivia night host, Mr. Rogers showed how disparate facts were linked to each other, illuminating connections audiences had never considered. He did so, they said, in ways that were entertaining and never condescending.
“He created an energy,” Trent said. “With Jeff, you saw his passion to educate. He was about telling people all the things that they should know.”
Mr. Rogers always had “hard to find information” at his fingertips, said Rufus J. Faulk, a friend since middle school who co-owns The Mix restaurant in Dorchester.
“It was like, ‘How do you even come up with this?’ He was a Rolodex of information,” said Faulk, who formerly worked in the mayoral administrations of Martin Walsh and Michelle Wu.
The lessons Mr. Rogers taught went beyond the joys of trivia to fostering a sense of belonging in the Black community, friends said.
“It was profound the way he would see the world and see our history as a very affirming thing,” said state Senator Liz Miranda, a Boston Democrat.
Hella Black Trivia “was not just about knowing Black history,” Miranda said. “It’s about community, it’s about joy, it’s about the act of remembering.”
Hosting trivia nights, Mr. Rogers “was not just smart. He was a level above,” Miranda said. “He was incredibly witty, innovative, kind, brilliant. I swear he was gifted.”
And he was always ready to share what he had learned.
Audiences crave both knowledge and the feeling of belonging, Mr. Rogers told writer Jacquinn Sinclair for WBUR’s 2020 report.
“People have a thirst for trivia,” he said. “They have a thirst for community.”
As a friend and a consultant, Mr. Rogers helped others begin or improve their own careers, said Sheena Collier, founder and chief executive of The Collier Connection consulting firm and of Boston While Black, a membership community that connects Black professionals.
“He was someone who gave so much of himself,” Collier said. “He really took care of his people. The breadth and depth of the ways he’s impacted people have been overwhelming.”
On his LinkedIn profile, where Mr. Rogers discussed his approach to being an executive coach and a diversity, equity, and inclusion facilitator, he stressed the importance and necessity of unity.
“I love bringing people together to solve problems,” Mr. Rogers wrote. “I understand that solving problems is about uniting people. I know that that’s what leadership is.”
Jeffrey Mark Rogers was born in Dorchester on Nov. 4, 1981.
The third of four siblings, he was a son of Paul K. Rogers, who retired as a phone company manager, and Kathleen Arsenault Rogers, who has worked in medical research and health care.
The nickname “The Professor” that Mr. Rogers used when hosting Hella Black Trivia dated back to his youth.
“As a kid, he was very, very, very precocious. He was always advanced in learning,” said his younger brother, Dwayne, of Tampa.
That didn’t make school an easy place for Mr. Rogers.
If teachers and adults wanted to debate a point with him, “you needed to have facts, you needed to have understanding, you had to have reasoning to back up what you were saying,” Dwayne recalled. “As you can imagine, he drove many teachers wild.”
Though he would later teach college graduate students, Mr. Rogers left high school and earned a general equivalency diploma.
“It took him a while to find his way because of his questioning of authority,” Dwayne said. Then Mr. Rogers followed the path of his curiosity and growing knowledge into the consulting field.
“It had been right there in front of him all the time,” Dwayne said.
Naeemah Smith was Mr. Rogers’s partner of 16 years. She and her son, Sahmir Russell, survive him, as do Jaiyere and Chief Jasaad Rogers, Mr. Rogers’s sons from his marriage to Kimesha Janey, which ended in divorce.
In addition to his parents, who live in Dorchester, and his brother Dwayne, Mr. Rogers leaves another brother, Paul D. Rogers of Quincy, and a sister, Jill Clark of Riverview, Fla.
A viewing will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday in the Floyd A. Williams Funeral Home in Dorchester. A celebration of life will begin at 6 p.m. Monday in the Venezia waterfront restaurant in Boston.
Bringing the same patience and careful listening to his family and friends as he did to his consulting clients, Mr. Rogers would “help you clear up the fog in your own head,” Dwayne said.
“The main thing about him was that he had an open ear,” Dwayne said. “If you had a question, he could sit down and act like a therapist.”
Mr. Rogers centered conversations so they were “about you, and it would always come down to you making a decision about yourself,” his brother said. “When things were chaotic, his favorite thing was to come in, calm things down, and leave things better than he found them.”
Though Mr. Rogers will long be remembered for his consulting work and by the countless people who attended Hella Black Trivia, “he really flourished as a father,” Miranda said.
Dwayne said that because his brother “took so long to find his own way, because he took the road less traveled, he was able to take those lessons and hand them to his sons.”
“The number one thing about his legacy,” Miranda said, “will be the sons that he raised — that they are compassionate, brilliant, service-minded, innovative young men.”
Bryan Marquard can be reached at bryan.marquard@globe.com.
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