He moved to Aiken in 1972, earned a living in nuclear engineering and dedicated much of his time and talent to promoting the nuclear family.
Roger Rollins, a South Dakota native, is largely known as an Aiken Standard columnist and also as director of FAMCO – Family and Marriage Coalition of Aiken, described on its website as "committed to providing resources for marriage preparation, enrichment, and restoration in Aiken and surrounding communities."
Biblical principles are at the heart of the matter, as he and his wife, Barb, are deeply involved in their church, Calvary Chapel of Aiken, and have been on board with a variety of ministries over the past 50 years.
"He is dedicated," said longtime friend Marilyn Winn, who also chose the word "earnest" in attempting a description. "I mean, he's just involved in so many things. He just loves the Lord and he is actually amazing ... He doesn't waste a minute. He's just ... extremely organized. I mean, he follows through. He just seems to wear a lot of different hats, but each thing, he does well."
The Rollins' marriage began in 1967 and the two are "a really good team," in Winn's assessment. "They work well together. They're just very committed to so many good things."
Harmony, in the Rollins household, can be both literal and figurative. The lady of the house is a professional music educator, with the trumpet as her primary instrument to go along with familiarity with other wind instruments. She and her husband, a trombone player, have both been musicians since childhood.
Rollins opted to avoid applying the label "good musician" to himself, and added, "I'm an adequate musician. I enjoy it. I have fun."
The two put their instruments into action at a variety of public gatherings, as Barb Rollins is the leader of the Aiken Area Akademie Band, helping provide a soundtrack for events with a patriotic theme, such as the Aiken-Augusta Wounded Warrior Charity Golf Classic and Aiken County's Memorial Day ceremony.
Their home team is based on Banks Mill Road, and the family tree includes two daughters. The father of the house noted, "Both of them are grown up. One of them lives in High Point, North Carolina. They ... take care of our three grandchildren, and her husband is a pastor of a big church up there, and my other daughter is a certified public accountant up in Columbus, Ohio. She and her husband ... are both professionally involved in all kinds of different activities."
Rollins, who is also an active member of Aiken County Republican Party, focused mainly on health and safety during his decades at the Savannah River Site. He retired in 2005 and hasn't slowed down.
Rollins is "just as busy or busier than when he was working," said longtime friend Linda Coffin. "He's very organized and will keep a meeting on schedule, and I appreciate his time management. Another thing is, he knows how to take care of the body and he knows how to take care of the soul. He's fit and he stays close to the Lord."
Rollins recalled, "We started the Family and Marriage Coalition, trying to reach out in a more continuous and positive way to get people in the community to realize that God has a plan for them as a couple and as a family. In fact, God's plan is the only one that works, and that's the message we try to get across."
The coalition, he added, "is founded on the fact that God has designed relationships in general, and marriage in particular, for a man and a woman to come together, to live together, to love one another, to care for each other and to have children and raise those children, in accordance with God's plan for them."
Gary Bunker, chairman of Aiken County Council, said that Rollins "has a very strong commitment to strengthening families and strengthening marriages across our community, and ... he's put in countless hours of volunteer work on those issues."
Familiar territory for Rollins includes such organizations as Aiken Life Choice Pregnancy Care Center and Christ Central Mission, as well as being a major organizer of Aiken's annual National Day of Prayer activities.
Kathryn Wade, executive director of the pregnancy care center, has known Rollins for decades and chose the word "steadfast" in looking to describe him. His priorities, she said, are Christ, the family and the community.
"All of those things, with Christ being the number-one. He's steadfast in his dedication to demonstrating Christlikeness to people, to demonstrating the need to stand up for life, for the family, the need to stand up and make your voice heard in the community. He's just been a steadfast voice for all the years that I've known him," she said.
Rollins' childhood and early adult years also did plenty to prepare him for conditions that make some Aiken residents cringe: icy and snowy weather. He grew up about 10 miles west of the Minnesota border, where temperatures routinely drop into single digits from December through February, and annual snowfall is normally about 40 inches.
Flandreau, South Dakota, Rollins' hometown, is described in promotional material as "a small but progressive community, located about 40 minutes north of Sioux Falls." The future FAMCO founder also got to know Rapid City, near South Dakota's border with Wyoming, as a young adult, attending South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and earning a bachelor's degree in physics.
He stayed in the Midwest for a few more years, in successful pursuit of a doctorate in nuclear engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
A massive nuclear facility in South Carolina caught his attention a few months later. Aiken experienced a "big snowstorm" in 1973, about a year after the Rollins' arrival, and the family was living in the area now covered by the massive Kroger and Home Depot complex.
"I just remember, coming from South Dakota, I was used to driving in the snow, so I got out to drive to work that morning after the heavy snow. Nobody was out there. There were no tracks in the road. There was no traffic. There was nothing. Everybody stayed home. Didn't know how to handle snow."
A half-century later, snow remains a rare obstacle in Aiken County, and Rollins is keenly focused, through FAMCO, on helping neighbors deal with life's biggest challenges.
"Our goal is to try to make sure that it's not just doing good things for the families. It's introducing them to Jesus, because we know that He has the ultimate plan for the family. Maybe we can make people comfortable, we can call them, we can give them food and all that good stuff, and that's certainly important, but ultimately, we've got to bring them to the total answer – not just keep them happy where they're at, but have them move on beyond to the plan that God has for them."
Working in partnership with churches is a major part of the outreach, with the idea being "to help the churches help the families," Rollins said.
"You hope the families are in the church. A lot of churches don't really know how to help the families. I mean, they love them and care for them, but when it comes to dealing with issues and stuff, they tend to say, 'Go see your nearest counselors,' and it may be a secular counselor. Who knows? Our goal is to help the churches be more effective in ministering to people that they have in their congregations."
Coffin said, "I admire Roger, so it's easy to tell about him to others, because he's what I aspire to be."
