Avery Rex Hogan was born in St. Louis, Missouri on September 26, 1944. His dad was a truck driver while his mother was a homemaker and impressive baker; he had one older sister.

Growing up, Rex never had a specific goal of what he wanted to be when he grew up. After high school, he started as an engineering student at Washington University in St. Louis, but then focused on Operations Research courses which eventually culminated in a graduate degree and a love with computer programming. He also developed a passion of computer languages and found that learning new ones broadened both his mind and his career opportunities.

After earning his undergraduate degree, Rex spent five years in the Air Force as a Civil Engineering Officer assigned at MacDill AFB in Florida, where he first met his future wife, Cindy. He was later stationed at Cape Newenham AFS in Alaska and then as a faculty member at the Civil Engineering School at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio.

After leaving the Air Force, he returned to St. Louis where he worked as a computer programmer while finishing his master’s degree at the University of MO-St. Louis. He then moved to Southwestern Bell Telephone (SWBT), eventually becoming their lead Database Specialist. After managing their Database Support group for eight years, he became part of a six-person Technical Architecture team defining an advanced computing architecture for future software development for all of SWBT/AT&T. Rex also taught evening graduate and undergraduate classes at Washington University, published two books and co-authored a third on database design and management. Most recently Rex published a second edition to his book “A Practical Guide to Database Design.”

After moving to Virginia in 1994, Rex became a Senior Database Administrator working for TRW/Northrop Grumman in the Intelligence Community, where he specialized in the analysis of data from special sources, and for designing and implementing queries to resolve complex analytical questions.

In 2011 Rex became a Computer Scientist for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, where he developed scripts and databases to monitor, record and report on USAF Internet traffic for five sensitive subject areas. Using over a dozen computers running on Windows and Unix, Rex wrote the scripts to download and monitor half of the entire Air Force’s internet traffic. This included the development of a web-based interface to identify and respond to actionable items.

After retiring from the Air Force, Rex taught part-time at Stratford University from August 2016 – May 2019, and then accepted a position as an Adjunct Professor in the CIS department at ECPI University in July 2019. Rex is influenced today by his wife and partner Cindy, who is “the sweetest and most caring person I have ever known. She makes our house a home.” She complements him: where he is introverted, she often will work to pull him out of his shell and help him to engage with their friends.

When contemplating where to retire, Rex would think about what his daughter told him: “Be nice to me, I get to pick out your retirement home!” After Rex and Cindy researched communities in the area, their daughter sent them information on The Chesapeake, knowing that she would eventually retire to the Tidewater area herself. Rex and Cindy were impressed with The

Chesapeake, its amenities, the variety of activities, the location, and its floor plans for the Gloucester cottages. They moved to the community in 2010. Being part of The Chesapeake community is important to Rex, where it feels as though residents and team members live and work together as part of an extended family. He feels that The Chesapeake’s executive director “takes great care of his team.”

While at The Chesapeake, Rex has served as a member of the Resident Advisory Council and president of the Resident Council. He started The Chesapeake’s “Geek Squad”, affectionately called the Chesa-Geeks, to help residents who need assistance with computers and technology. He works with other residents to run the sound system for worship services at The Chesapeake, and has served on the Dining Committee and the Activities Committee. When the Fresh Start house was first activated, Rex and Cindy helped sort through resident donations of items. In his role as an adjunct faculty member at ECPI, Rex serves as an interface to Barbara Jackson-Ingram and ECPI’s Medical Career Institute for students looking for jobs.

In the next year, Rex hopes to continue being a father, grandfather, and great grandfather and he’s looking forward to expanding technical support to residents through the Chesa-Geeks. He’s going to continue teaching at ECPI.

Rex and Cindy both are looking forward to traveling again after the pandemic, to the Azores and later to the United Kingdom. He’s eager to continue his passion for photography and again have time to play his guitars and banjo.

When asked of what he is most proud, Rex says he is proud of his career, of the contributions he has been able to make, particularly at Langley while working to identify service men and women who were struggling with mental health challenges. He’s proud of being able to get help to those who needed it.