Perhaps I can add something to this thread. As a classmate and friend, I have wondered all my adult life what happened to this young man. Reading the above posts I can also fill in a few gaps I see.
How did I get here? Roger's story came back to life for me when his sister, Mary Ellen called me out of the blue a few months back, shouting into the phone "they've found Roger!". I had emailed Mary Ellen awhile back, reintroducing myself (she may have been around 11 years old, the last time I had known of her back in the early '60s). Starting around 1957 or so, shortly after my family had moved to the GB area from Massachusetts, Roger and I met in our Harundale neighborhood. We were the same age and lived within minutes of each other. We quickly became fast friends. In fact, for my entire life, I have always considered Roger my "Best Friend". To this day he is my answer to any web site's secret question "Who is your best friend".
To start with, I've read most of the recent news on Roger's discovery in the trash can and also the posts here. Let me add a few things though. Regarding his school days. Roger was technically in my HS class of 1961, however, the fact is, he did not graduate with the class. He had dropped out of school. Here's how that happened. As I stated earlier, we were best buds. So much so that by the time of Jr. High and High School, we spent all our time goofing around and not doing homework, etc. We also had become big-time cigarette smokers, no drugs as this was before they showed up on the street. We weren't trouble makers by any stretch but we were definitely not serious about school. As a result, we both flunked 10th grade. This was the beginning of Roger's downfall and I'm ashamed to admit a part in this as his buddy. Though I did in fact repeat 10th grade, doing well enough that I skipped 11th and finally graduated with my class of 61, Roger never to my knowledge returned to school after that ill-fated first shot at 10th grade.
Somewhere I read that Roger was president of his art club. This could be, as he was somewhat talented in this area as I recall, but it would have been in 10th grade or before and honestly sounds like a way too serious involvement for the kid I remember.
I will leave this post here.