New fund honors trailblazing alumna, supports ROTC students

Retired Marine Corps Colonel Chris Rodatz, who graduated from Auburn in 1968 alongside his future wife Sharon, remembers the moment he asked her to marry him — with a solemn warning that life as a military spouse would not be easy.

“Before we got married, I said, ‘You will always be second, because­ the Marine Corps will always come first.’ She mulled that over for about 30 seconds and said, ‘I’m good with that,’” he recalled. “It takes a special kind of woman to be a career Marine’s spouse.”

Not only did Sharon stand beside him through military service, relocations and a Vietnam War deployment, she also became a steady source of care and support for other Marine Corps families.

When she passed away in late 2025, Col. Rodatz wanted to find a way for everyone to remember her kind, loving spirit, but he wasn’t quite sure how — until Sharon’s brother found an old newspaper clipping of her: a Plainsman story on the first two female members of Auburn’s Army ROTC rifle team. He knew immediately that a memorial fund supporting Auburn ROTC students was the tribute he had been looking for.  

“I knew I had to do something; it was like a calling,” he said. “When my brother-in-law found that picture of Sharon, I said, ‘That’s it — it's Auburn. Full circle.”

Fancy meeting you here

Before they graduated in 1968, Col. Rodatz, a psychology major in the Platoon Leaders Class (PLC) program, and Sharon, a biology student, shared a philosophy class.

Because she often drove rural roads between Auburn and her family’s home in Birmingham, Sharon wanted firearms training for protection. She approached the Army ROTC instructor for lessons, and she and her roommate were soon invited to become the first two women on Auburn’s competitive rifle team — whose captain was the young man sitting near her in class.

“The Army ROTC instructor said we needed some co-eds on the team since all the other schools had them,” he said. “The next thing I know, I go to the indoor shooting range, which is real dark, and I trip on somebody. I recognize her from class, and the rest is history.”

In it for the long haul

After they graduated, Col. Rodatz’s warning about military life rang true; he went straight to Vietnam while Sharon started work on a master’s degree. She left Auburn early to join her husband when he was stationed in Hawaii.

While Sharon taught high school and learned about life as a military spouse, Col. Rodatz rose through the ranks of the Marine Corps, serving as a unit commander within Pacific Fleet and Fleet Marine Force Atlantic and directing the Marine Corps Intelligence Center during Operation Desert Storm. Between active duty and reserve time, he served 30 years in the Marine Corps, and all that time, Sharon was a steady rock, teaching, raising their daughter and looking after her husband’s Marines while traveling to and from duty stations.

“The Marines loved her,” he said. “She got along with everybody, whereas I didn’t. As I rose in rank, she took care of all the officers’ wives, and she cooked for my troops.”

The couple faced challenges together over the years, with both battling cancer at the same time — “We had adjoining chemo chairs,” he recalled — and balancing military life with family. Whether he was running ultramarathons, organizing road races or serving his country, Sharon was always by the colonel’s side — including at the end of her life, when she suffered from both dementia and a cancer recurrence.

“We were soulmates joined at the hip for 58 years,” he said. “I supported her and she supported me. If she couldn’t talk, I’d do it for her.”

Leaving a legacy

Losing Sharon has left a huge hole in Col. Rodatz’s heart. He’s turned that loss into action, helping to grow the fund he generously endowed in her honor — the Sharon W. Rodatz Endowed Fund for Excellence for the Auburn ROTC Program — that will help close the financial gap in critical areas such as housing, food, transportation and other cost-of-living expenses for cadets and midshipmen.

Having faced those same financial challenges during his first year at Auburn, he is now urging everyone he knows to help him grow the fund.

“Some of these students are doing their academics and their military stuff and then they go work two jobs to put food on the table,” he said. “What we’re going to do is make their life a little bit easier, and everybody I’ve talked to — especially the military guys — they understand. Sharon would approve of it.”

Col. Rodatz wants recipients to remember that military spouses carry a unique kind of strength and sacrifice. He still thinks back to a Marine Corps Ball at Auburn, when he realized Sharon was that person for him.

“She was as much a Marine as I was,” he said. “When you see the picture of us at the Marine Corps Ball, you can tell in her eyes — this is where she wanted to be.”