Roger Zellars, who created sobriety recovery groups for Black men, veterans, dies at 80

He was a warrior and a healer.

Roger Zellars, who put decades of his life into helping men reach sobriety and stay there, died March 7, leaving a legacy in his work as associate director, clinical director, counselor, admissions director and all-around leader at the Prospect House. Zellars was 80 years old and still working at the East Price Hill rehab center for men with alcoholism and other addictions. He died from cancer.

"He could tell a joke, tell a story. He would teach by parable," said David Logan, retired executive director of Prospect House. If two men at the center weren't getting along, Zellars would require them to spend a half-an-hour a day together, each telling the other his own story.

"At the end of the week, they discovered that they were similar in the way they dealt with the world," Logan said.

Roger Zellars: Vietnam veteran understood challenges of recovery

Zellars was a two-tour Vietnam War veteran, enlisting in the Army not long after graduating from the former De Porres High School in 1961. His tours started in 1966. He was wounded twice, and he was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. His military experience was evident in his work at Prospect House, Logan said. Zellars was particular about having every file, every report done properly.

Zellars came to Prospect House in 1985, in recovery himself from alcoholism. He had 38-plus years in recovery when he died, and his insight into the disease helped him help others along the way, said Logan, who also is in recovery from alcoholism. 

As a Black man, Zellars believed that Black men with addiction and alcoholism needed a safe space within which to share and interpret their experiences, Logan said.

"He knew Black men deserved a place to be culturally specific, to talk freely," Logan said, and so Zellars formed the Black Support Group at Prospect House.

The group was met enthusiastically and now reaches about 50 people per week. Logan attributes its success to Zellars.

From the group, an annual event evolved: the annual Black Support Picnic, which, just before the novel coronavirus pandemic, drew as many as 2,000 Prospect House clients, graduates and their families. The picnic will be back, Logan promised.

Desire to help all types of addiction sufferers

In similar fashion, Zellars co-founded with the late Prospect House senior counselor Sonny Richardson  a group called AfterNam, which developed into AfterWars, helping veterans with PTSD. "They realized that war in the desert is not so different from war in the jungle," Logan said.

Nan Franks, retired CEO of the Addiction Services Council, another nonprofit, praised Zellars' work for those who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

But he didn't narrow his reach to particular types of addiction sufferers, those who knew him say.

"Roger was a big advocate and spokesperson on behalf of persons with addiction," Franks said. He was on the workgroup that first tried to address the opioid epidemic in the region, releasing Reversing the Tide: Hamilton County’s Response to the Opioid Epidemic in March 2015.

Zellars was a licensed independent chemical dependency counselor and a national certified addiction counselor. And he did not keep his successes to himself, Logan said. 

Zellars made educational presentations for professionals in his field and for the public, on alcoholism, drug addiction and PTSD.

He served on the Ohio Chemical Dependency Counselors' board of directors, was a founding member of Ohio Citizens Advocacy, served on the committee that created the licensure structure for Ohio addiction counselors, and was a founding board member of the Alliance Project in Washington, D.C., which later became Faces and Voices of Recovery. He started a local chapter here.

"Roger often said that recovery was the best thing that had ever happened to him," Logan said.

A lot of what Prospect House has become is because of Zellars, Logan said. "It's a small agency, but it punches above its weight."

Not unlike Zellars, a man who was small in stature.

"Sometimes people would say, 'Who is that short, dark-skinned, Black man,'" Logan said. "I would have to think about it. I never thought of him as short. He was blunt. He was forceful. He had great intuition about people."

Zellars' survivors include his sons Solomon, Michael, Terrance, and Roger Jr. 

About 400 people, including many Prospect House clients in recovery, family, friends and colleagues attended Zellars' funeral service last weekat Overflow Ministries Covenant Church in East Price Hill. On his behalf, donations may be made to Prospect House, 682 Hawthorne Ave., Cincinnati, OH, 45204, or a charity of your choice.