In 1964, Rogers moved to California to become a resident fellow at the Center for the Study of the Person, in La Jolla. There he remained active until shortly before his death in 1987, pursuing his goal of reducing international tensions. He applied his person-centered philosophy to attempts to break down the barriers between such groups as Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland, Jews and Arabs in the Middle East, and Eastern Bloc communist countries and Western democracies. "The problem of preventing a nuclear holocaust has top priority in my mind, my heart, and my work” ("Rogers calls peace results 'surprising.'" 1984, p. 15).