“Rock” Roszak

VICE PRESIDENT & ART DIRECTOR,
DETAIL & SCALE

COLONEL (RET.), US AIR FORCE;DIGITAL ILLUSTRATOR

Colonel Richard S. “Rock” Roszak is the son of immigrants who came to America from a war-ravaged Europe. He grew up in Staunton, Virginia and graduated from VPI in 1971 as a member of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets. He was commissioned into the United States Air Force where he amassed over 2,000 flying hours, mostly in B-52D/F/G and C-135 aircraft, over a 27-year active duty career. His staff tours included time as a special assistant to the Air Force Chief of Staff, liaison officer for strategic aircraft programs to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, and as the Senior Technical Advisor to the Special Ambassador for assistance agreements to demilitarize strategic nuclear launch vehicles of the former Soviet Union.

After retiring from the Air Force in 1998, Rock spent 14 years on the staff of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets, returning to where he began his military career. During those years he established an alumni aviation gallery, which featured his artwork of aircraft flown by cadet grads to highlight more than 60 years of military aviation history. An avid modeler in his younger years, he has been a digital artist for over 13 years and has illustrated several books in partnership with his friend, Bert Kinzey. He learned digital publishing by creating his first e-book about the aviators whose aircraft are displayed in the campus gallery entitled “Hokie High: Combat Aircraft and Aviators of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets Alumni”, available both as an iPad iBook and for the Kindle platform.

Besides being the vice president of Detail & Scale, Rock also creates all of the artwork in our digital volumes and handles the electronic publishing end of the business. His duties include book layout and management of the publishing process for international sales through Apple and Amazon. Rock currently lives in Blacksburg, Virginia, with his wife, Patty, two daughters, and six grandchildren.