Hardy Rogness
Hardy Joel Rogness, age 63, passed away Aug. 29, 2011, at Sanford Hospital in Fargo, N.D., of complications resulting from diabetes, kidney failure and heart disease.
Hardy was born the son of Harold J. Rogness on July 9, 1949, in Williston, N.D. He graduated with the class of 1967 from Watford City High School, Watford City, N.D. He attended Augustana College in Sioux Falls, S.D.; Valley City State College, Valley City, N.D.; The Cliff Mann School of Floral Design, Denver, Colo., in 1969; the South Florida School of Floral Design in 1973 and Advanced Design Instruction in 1979. In 1970, he founded and continued to own and operate the Flower Box in Minot, N.D., for 10 years before moving to Denver, Colo., to further his successful floral career. While in Denver, he was employed with Miller-Rosenthal Florist in Cherry Creek, Callaham Wholesale Florist Company, Park Floral Store Company, Hampden Floral Company, Englewood, Colo., the Flower Wheel in the Evergreen/Conifer, Colo., areas. In his last floral position, he managed The Brown Palace Flower shop of the Historic Brown Palace Hotel in downtown Denver. While in this position, he designed for many famous celebrities, including the President of the United States while he was a guest in the hotel, Marvin and Barbara Davis and their famous “Carousel” Ball for the benefit of childhood diabetes, the spectacular train cars of Philip Anschutz for day trips to Salt Lake City and other destinations, the Colorado Governor’s Mansion at Christmas time, Rosewood Properties of Houston, Texas, that owned and managed the “Cash Register” United Bank Building in downtown Denver, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson, David Bowie, while they were hotel guests, and many major oil companies including Davis Oil, Anschutz Oil, Vessels Oil, Baumgartner Oil, Petro Lewis Oil and the Atlantic Richfield Company. He also worked on the Children’s Hospital benefits with many of the Petroleum wives from the Petroleum Club.
In 1988, he changed business careers to Trave Nation-Wide with the Jeanne Fishman Antique Show Circuit out of Detroit, Mich. During the next 16 years, he completed his shows in more than 30 of the mainland states, and included the following major cities: Denver, Colo.; Tulsa, Okla.; Kansas City, Mo.; West Palm Beach, Fla.; Naples, Fla.; Toledo, Ohio; West Bloomfield Hills, Mich.; Chicago, Ill.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Las Vegas, Nev.; Cleveland, Ohio; Akron, Ohio; Indianapolis, Ind.; Atlantic City, N.J.; and New York, N.Y. He was the first North Dakota dealer to participate in the largest antique show in the world, with over 1,700 registered dealers from all over the world in Atlantic City, N.J.
In January 2004, because of health reasons, he gave up the show circuit. His last show was at the Minneapolis, Minn., Convention Center. He also served on the North Dakota State Health Board for two years.
In 1992, he was preceded in death by his special friend and business partner, Troy D. Capehart, of the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, area.
He is survived by many special friends in Colorado, Florida and North Dakota.
Cremation has taken place and his cremains will be spread in Colorado and North Dakota. As he requested, there will be no memorial service.