The Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (CSEEES) would like to extend its sincerest condolences to the family, friends, colleagues, and former students of Carole Rogel who passed away on September 30, 2024 in Columbus, OH.

Rogel was born in Cleveland on January 30, 1939. She graduated from Euclid High School in 1956; received a BA from Flora Stone Mather College (Western Reserve University), Cleveland, in 1960, and from Columbia University in New York three degrees: an MA (1961), a certificate from its Institute on East Central Europe (1962), and a PhD (1966). Rogel taught in the Department of History at The Ohio State University from 1964 until her retirement in 1990. From 1988 to 1990, she was Vice Chair of the department. She was a long-time member of the American Historical Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, the Association for Southeast European Studies, of which she was president in 1981, and the American Association of University Professors (Ohio State Chapter Secretary, 1973-74). Rogel was also a founding member of the Society for Slovene Studies, of which she was president from 1984 to 1990 and Treasurer from 1998 to 2012 and wrote a history of the society which can be read here. Additionally, she is remembered for her work in mentoring and promoting many young scholars of Slovene studies. Throughout her career Rogel authored numerous books and articles on Slovene and Yugoslav history and lectured extensively on the breakup of former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. In 2002, the Republic of Slovenia awarded her an Honorary Gold Medal of Freedom for contributions in America to the scholarship and teaching about Slovenes and Slovenia.

Her husband, Philip P. Poirier, who was also a faculty member in the Department of History at Ohio State, pre-deceased her, as did her parents, Theresa Rose (Kmet) Rogel and Janko Rogelj, and her brother Iko Rogel (Searchlight, NV). She is survived by many cousins in Cleveland and in Slovenia. In lieu of flowers, donations in her name may be made to the Department of History at Ohio State or to the Society for Slovene Studies.