When he left the Air Force in the 1950s, Bill Rogers’ dream was as simple as they come.

He had always loved woodshop; loved how you could start with a solid block of beech or mahogany or ash and, after lots of cutting, shaving and sanding, you’d end up with a race car or a memory box. He took woodshop for three years at Central High in Waseca, Minn. He wanted to be a woodshop teacher.

Members of the Orange County Woodworkers Association gather together after spending all year building toys for sick children in Anaheim, California, on Friday, November 24, 2017. The group spent the day after Thanksgiving boxing up their creations to be distributed for delivery to kids for the holidays. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A tank made by members of the Orange County Woodworkers Association in Anaheim, California, on Friday, November 24, 2017. The group spent the day after Thanksgiving boxing up their creations to be distributed for delivery to kids for the holidays. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Mike Morand does last minute repairs to toys made by members of the Orange County Woodworkers Association in Anaheim, California, on Friday, November 24, 2017. The group spent the day after Thanksgiving boxing up their creations to be distributed for delivery to kids for the holidays. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Walking ducks made by members of the Orange County Woodworkers Association in Anaheim, California, on Wednesday, November 22, 2017. The group spent the day after Thanksgiving boxing up their creations to be distributed for delivery to kids for the holidays. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Woodworkers Bill Rogers, left, and Len Musgrave look over toys made by members of the Orange County Woodworkers Association in Anaheim, California, on Wednesday, November 22, 2017. The group spent the day after Thanksgiving boxing up their creations to be distributed for delivery to kids for the holidays. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)



Bill Rogers looks over toys made by felow members of the Orange County Woodworkers Association in Anaheim, California, on Wednesday, November 22, 2017. The group spent the day after Thanksgiving boxing up their creations to be distributed for delivery to kids for the holidays. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Bill Rogers, of the Orange County Woodworkers Association, dons his toy maker hat in Anaheim, California, on Wednesday, November 22, 2017. The group spent the day after Thanksgiving boxing up their creations to be distributed for delivery to kids for the holidays. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Eric Thorson helps box up toys made by members of the Orange County Woodworkers Association in Anaheim, California, on Friday, November 24, 2017. The group spent the day after Thanksgiving boxing up their creations to be distributed for delivery to kids for the holidays. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A toy truck made by members of the Orange County Woodworkers Association in Anaheim, California, on Wednesday, November 22, 2017. The group spent the day after Thanksgiving boxing up their creations to be distributed for delivery to kids for the holidays. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Orange County Woodworkers Association makes toys and keepsake boxes for Marines in Anaheim, California, on Wednesday, November 22, 2017. The group spent the day after Thanksgiving boxing up their creations to be distributed for delivery during the holidays. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)



Bill Rogers, of the Orange County Woodworkers Association, dons his toy maker hat in Anaheim, California, on Friday, November 24, 2017. The group spent the day after Thanksgiving boxing up their creations to be distributed for delivery to kids for the holidays. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Les Rogers, left, and Wes King, box up toys made by fellow members of the Orange County Woodworkers Association in Anaheim, California, on Friday, November 24, 2017. The group spent the day after Thanksgiving boxing up their creations to be distributed for delivery to kids for the holidays. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A truck that makes use of surplus moulding made by members of the Orange County Woodworkers Association in Anaheim, California, on Wednesday, November 22, 2017. The group spent the day after Thanksgiving boxing up their creations to be distributed for delivery to kids for the holidays. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A truck made by members of the Orange County Woodworkers Association in Anaheim, California, on Wednesday, November 22, 2017. The group spent the day after Thanksgiving boxing up their creations to be distributed for delivery to kids for the holidays. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Cell phones made by members of the Orange County Woodworkers Association in Anaheim, California, on Wednesday, November 22, 2017. The group spent the day after Thanksgiving boxing up their creations to be distributed for delivery to kids for the holidays. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)



Members of the Orange County Woodworkers Association gather together after spending all year building toys for sick children in Anaheim, California, on Friday, November 24, 2017. The group spent the day after Thanksgiving boxing up their creations to be distributed for delivery to kids for the holidays. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

But life has a way of messing up dreams — or, sometimes, of putting them off for a few decades.

After he left the Air Force, Rogers, got married, had kids and took a sales and customer service job at the Sears in Torrance. Later, he switched to sporting goods sales.

But this week, Rogers, now 81 and living in Orange, sat on his hand-crafted wooden rocking chair, talking about his simple dream.

Like wood, it was tough to break.

Head elf

In the 1980s, even as he was still selling sporting goods, part of Rogers’ dream came into focus.

He joined the Orange County Woodworkers Association. And, by the end of the ’80s, Rogers was in charge of the OCWA’s toy program; he was head elf.

In 1989, Rogers’ toy program included a couple woodworkers who cranked out about 150 toys that they then gave to three local children’s organizations. This year, Rogers oversaw a crew of nearly 50 woodworkers who, combined, made about 4,000 gifts that will go to 52 organizations.

This week, all those wooden gifts were gathered and boxed at Anderson International Trading in Anaheim by about 50 wood enthusiasts talking instructions from Bill Rogers. The boxes will be mailed out in time for the holidays.

“We’re cranky old guys… we’re the curmudgeon elves,” said James Santhon of San Clemente, the OCWA’s current president. “For Bill, this toy program is his whole life.”

Rex Bullock of Tustin made almost 1,000 toys this year. Harvey Carr of Lake Forest chipped in with a couple hundred.

“It keeps me sane,” Bullock said.

“We try to give the children the best we can,” he added. “The hardest thing is to keep thinking of a new toy every year.”

Cars, tanks, trains, memory boxes, ducks, pens; the cranky-but-good-hearted elves with the OCWA make these and all other manner of solid wooden trinkets.

In return, they get letters from kids.

In a world that doesn’t always understand people with sawdust under their nails, those responses are gold.

“It’s nice to know people appreciate what we’ve done,” Santhon said.

Smorgasbord of wood

Bill Rogers married Beverly in 1961. They had two children, Jeff and Jennifer.

Sears seemed like a solid career, until it wasn’t. Rogers was laid off on the day before Thanksgiving in 1974. Jennifer, who was 8, pledged to give all the money from her piggy bank to help the family.

“We all started crying,” Rogers said.

Rogers said he remembered thinking, in 1974, that he had nothing to be thankful for.

He got a job selling life insurance, which he hated. He took his son into Orange Sporting Goods to buy baseball cleats and noticed a “Help Wanted” sign. He worked in sporting goods for 20 years.

His life could have ended like that. It almost did. He had open heart surgery at age 65.

His recovery was slow.

In that time off work, Rogers got to spend more time in the garage working on wood. His house is like a smorgasbord of wood.

There’s wood in the sheds, wood in the trash cans, wood on the tables, wood on the shelves; unfinished wood, carved wood, wooden logs. And where there isn’t wood there are machines — cutting tools — intended to help a person work on wood.

Roger has spent a lot of time puttering around his house and yard making toys for kids.

But it wasn’t until 2001 that his life turned the direction he’d always wanted.

Teaching the dream

Rogers was in his garage, working, when a man walked past the house. The man stopped and walked over to see some of Rogers’ woodwork. He was impressed.

That was Gregg Pinick, then the principal of Orange Lutheran High School. He offered Rogers a job — woodshop teacher.

“It was like a dream come true,” Rogers said.

He spent 10 years at Orange Lutheran, overseeing students who used wood to make end tables and holders for their compact discs. He convinced the school to buy new equipment, including 15 lathes.

“They saw me as a grandfather figure,” Rogers said.

But in 2011, they needed his wood shop for another class. So the program ended.

That year Rogers’ wife, Beverly, died. His career could have ended there if the depression would have gotten the better of him.

Instead, he walked into the office at St. Paul’s Lutheran School, a K-8th school also in Orange, and offered to teach kids about working with wood. They turned the school’s snack bar into his wood shop.

Rogers bought a couple of the lathes he had used at Orange Lutheran.

He remembers telling those young kids: “Always look beneath the bark.”

Rogers worked at St. Paul’s for three years until they stopped the wood shop program.

Not many schools have wood shops anymore.

“They’re missing out on a very valuable thing,” Rogers said. “You can take a block of wood and make something out of nothing. You get self confidence and self esteem.”

Now he focuses on the holiday toys.

Friday, as he oversaw the guys boxing the toys, he wore an old shirt from Orange Lutheran. It prompted him to ask this:

“How many people can say they started teaching when they were 65?”