Rodney was born in Failsworth in 1938. He worked in hotel Management in Austria and Switzerland where he met Charlie Chaplin and Gary Cooper. After 15 years in Hotel Management he was appointed Principal Lecturer in Hotel Management at Birmingham College of Food. In 1980 he moved to Bristol to take up the position of Head of Faculty at Brunel College. During the last ten years of his career he worked as a National Inspector of Technical Education.

Rodney has always been interested in art. His collection includes many contemporary British naïve painters. He has an extensive collection of English nineteenth century folk art acquired over forty years.

Now he has retired he spends more time in Dorset were he and his wife Susan have a cottage. In his paintings, which are on driftwood he tries to capture a feeling of the sea and a bygone age of sail and steam