Personal & Professional Journey

Roger is a member of “Generation Jones,” born late in the 1950’s in Michigan where his father got his first teaching and coach job in Montrose after graduating from Iowa State Teachers College (now UNI). After a few years the family relocated to Eastern Iowa where his dad got new teaching and coaching positions, and his mom began teaching elementary art when his younger brother finally got to kindergarten. It wasn’t long before they had a place in the country and started adding horses, cattle, a few pigs, a bunch of chickens and a kennel of AKC bread dogs. The three Freeman kids had lots of chores helping with the livestock, a huge garden, and everything around the house.

In his middle school years, Roger road barrels and poles on Appaloosa ponies. He had a heavy machinery operators’ permit by 14 and worked the fields on an old Allis-Chandler WD45, cleaned the barn a lot, bailed a lot of alfalfa, rounded up stray cattle, and even had to pull a calf from a first-year heifer (dad made him). His dad died in a horseback riding accident at the beginning of his junior year of high school and the so work-ethic he was raised with shifted to independent effort and resilience. He earned letters in the arts, several sports and swam butterfly in the City League where he was a life guard.

Dr. Freeman did his undergrad work at Iowa State University, where he got a survivor benefit of $204 a month and took out his first student loan. He earned a Bachelor’s of Science in an Independent Major for biological Illustration and worked at three medical schools before re-careering in a post-bach Master’s program at Texas Tech in Lubbock where he began his new career as a teacher. In 1987 he moved to Phoenix to teach 7th grade Math in the west valley and a couple of years later he started his family and started back to grad-school.

Roger worked to earn promotions and serve in professional organizations while the kids started school. Again he had to prove he could overcome adversity and may hold the ASU record for the longest degree effort, finally earning an ED.D. in 2004 defending a dissertation on leadership efficacy. He considers it a point of pride to have worked his way through three land-grant universities (before they all ended up in the BIG-12). Over the years he contributed to professional organizations served on State committees as well as several nonprofits.

The kids all went on to higher-ed after high school graduation. His daughter is working in Community Education in a valley school district, and his son runs his own insurance company after earning two degrees from Arizona State. Today he is retired and travels occasionally with his six-year-old labradoodle. He is a proud father looking forward to a new grandson in 2026. In 2027 he will begin serving a four-year term on the Madison ESD Governing Board.