Dr. Roger D. Estep (j. 2/1964; d. 2021) and Romaine Estep (d. 2004) attended All Souls in the 1960s and early 1970s before moving to Maryland. He was an usher (1969-1970) and served on the Forum Committee and the Canvass. He later joined the UU Congregation of Rockville, where he served as their planned giving chair.
Dr. Estep dedicated the better part of his professional life helping build and develop Howard University. He started off his career teaching “poultry husbandry” at Penn State in the late 1950s before moving on to Howard University’s College of Medicine, where he was a research veterinarian and taught physiology. He moved up in rank to serve as executive assistant to the vice president for health affairs in 1970 and finally as the executive assistant to the president in 1971 just before leaving the university to complete a short stint with the National Institutes of Health. In 1972, he returned to Howard, where he served some 18 years as vice president for development and university relations, spearheading the institution’s first $100 million fund raising campaign.
Besides the dollars, Estep was successful in developing important contacts for the university, both on the higher levels of the public sector and within the circles of private philanthropy.
Estep graduated from Maryland State College (now University of Maryland, Eastern Shore) in 1951. He then earned a master’s degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1957 and a doctorate four years later in veterinary medicine from Tuskegee Institute.