With a story as unique as his name, Rocky Rockenbach has had many turning points in his life.
He has endured hardships no one should, but sadly many do.
A proud ex-Marine, he has stood firm through it all — with more than a little help from God.
At 18, Rocky’s mother, Luciel, left the home of her parents, including her ill-tempered father, to start a life of her own.
“She had a pretty rough home life,” Rockenbach said. “She got the heck out of there as quickly as possible and married the first guy that liked her. Unfortunately, he was not a good man.”
As it turned out, Luciel married a man whose temperament was like that of her father, but worsened by the constant abuse of alcohol.
Born in 1936 amongst dust storms and at the peak of the Great Depression, Rocky (whose given name is Floyd) came to be in the small town of Thomas, Okla., the second child of the couple.
Abuse and alcohol-induced rage became too much for Rocky’s mother.
In an era when divorce was not considered an option, it was her only choice and that is what she decided to do.
“She found a job in Wichita as a house cleaner and nanny earning $5 a week plus room and board but was unable to keep me with her,” Rockenbach said. “My deceased grandfather had been a Methodist minister, so mom was able to find a place for me to stay.”
The place that took in Rocky was Youthville, known then as the Kansas Methodist Home for Children. His mother paid $1 a week for his care at the Newton children’s home that is now one of Youthville’s residential treatment facilities.
The memories of his time at the home, still located at the existing site, are vivid.
“I remember that there was a farm with livestock connected to the home,” Rockenbach said. “I used to play on the side porch of the red brick administration building. I remember that the main thing we had to eat was rice. It seems like we had rice every day, and I still do not like rice to this day.”
Rocky also remembers someone by the name of Mrs. Burton taking care of him on a regular basis.
“She was an older lady and realized I needed some extra quantities of TLC,” Rockenbach said. “I remember that I had ear aches often, and she doctored me for that. I sometimes slept in a crib in her room and she snored a lot.”
The one thing he remembers most clearly is how he did not want to be there.
“I hated that place,” Rockenbach said. “I just wanted to be back home with my mom and sister.”
Unlike many of the kids who enter the “system” each year, Rocky had his wish granted. After three years, his mother came to pick him up one day, but there is one thing that still bothers him about leaving that day.
“I never got to say thank you to Mrs. Burton,” Rockenbach said. “After three years in her care, I know she loved me. When we left that day, I never saw her again and never got to tell her ‘thank you’ for all she had done. She gave me love when no one else would.”
Rocky’s old life resumed once again with a new house in Wichita and a new father. Everything seemed perfect, but there was one piece missing.
When Rocky was sent to Youthville, his mother sent his sister Doris to an aunt and uncle in Altoona, Pa. They were unable to have children, and they welcomed the idea of having a girl to call their own, if only for a while. Unfortunately, for Rocky and his mother, when it came time to get Doris back, she did not want to return.
“When you spend such a length of time with someone, they become your parents,” Rockenbach said. “She did not want to come back home. That was a cruel blow to my mother… she never overcame that.”
As the family was trying to recover, the United States was entering World War II and the Wichita Boeing plant was hiring thousands of workers. Rocky’s stepfather was one of the many who were hired on at 52 cents an hour, which was good money at the time.
As the war came to an end in 1945, so did his stepfather’s job.
“My dad left Boeing and moved back to the farm he had grown up on in Alva, Okla.,” Rockenbach said. “He took over the family farm because his dad had died. I attended a one-room country schoolhouse southwest of Alva. For six years we lived on a farm with no electricity or running water.”
By 1951, the Korean War had broken out and Rocky’s stepfather went back to work at Boeing in Wichita.
“I made the transition from a one-room schoolhouse with 18 students to the largest school in Kansas … Wichita East High School with 3,300,” Rockenbach said. “I still don’t know how I managed to make that transition.”
As the Korean War raged on overseas, Rocky had no idea what he wanted to do with his life.
“I was a young scrawny kid, and I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go in life,” Rockenbach said. “I wanted to prove I was a man, so I decided to join the Marines.”
From 1955 to 1959, Rocky served in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was a radio operator in the 1st Special Communications Platoon and served two years in Japan. He was trained in Morse code and later Russian code. While in Japan, Rocky served under a young Marine captain named Al Grey. In 1987, Grey was promoted to commandant of the Marine Corps, the highest rank a Marine can obtain, and served on the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1987 to 1991.
“I’d like to think I was under pretty good leadership,” Rockenbach said.
Rocky qualified for the GI Bill, which gave him $110 a month to pursue an education once he left the Marines. He used that money to obtain a master’s degree in English from Emporia State University.
Upon graduating, Rocky took his first teaching job in Clay Center in 1962. After leaving Clay Center, Rocky taught 27 years with Derby High School in Derby, and he knows he had a successful teaching career.
“I didn’t make much money as a teacher, but I loved it,” Rockenbach said. “I had a 33-year career in teaching. I taught English and Greek mythology. I was respected and liked by many students and my peers. I think that is what success is all about.”
Now 72 years old, Rocky spends his days taking care of his yard, bass fishing and maintaining a strong faith in God.
He is proud of the life he has led, but it has had its lows.
From the depths of war to the strain of a divorce, the loss of a stepson and many “deep, dark, scary” places in between, Rocky has seen many things but he has remained positive through it all.
He now has the time to reflect on the life he has had. His time with Youthville and Mrs. Burton is something he spends a little extra time thinking about.
“I suspect that I was like a foster child to Mrs. Burton, but life snatched me away from her,” Rockenbach said. “I’m sure that was caused sadness in her life to lose me after three years. I never had a chance to say ‘thank you’. It has bothered me all of my life that I didn’t say ‘thank you, you have helped me. I didn’t like it there, but it is where I had to be.’”
