Roger Rulewich

Rulewich graduated from Yale University in 1958 with a degree in civil engineering.

Upon graduating Rulewich went to work for a large engineering and landscape design firm in New York City. After three years he decided to pursue his interest in architecture and submitted his resume to the Yale alumni placement service. They arranged an interview with an architect who turned out to be Robert Trent Jones, Sr. Rulewich was surprised to learn that Jones designed golf courses, not buildings, but he took the position Jones offered him. One of his first assignments was to design and build several bridges at Laurence Rockefeller's golf course in Woodstock, Vermont.

Over the next thirty-four years, Rulewich became an architect who, as Ron Whitten wrote, "produced stunning courses in the exact (and exacting) style of Robert Trent Jones." From 1931 to 2000 hundreds of courses in forty states and thirty-five countries were attributed to Jones.

Rulewich became Jones' chief designer and in the 1980's and 1990's. became the "poster boy of unsung golf course architects" according to golf design historian, Ronald Whitten.

From 1989 to 1992, Roger Rulewich designed and managed the largest golf construction project in US history. Dr. David Bronner, CEO of the Retirement System of Alabama, devised a plan to diversify the assets of the state pension fund and bring tourist dollars into the state by building seven, new, multi-course golf facilities (324 holes) - the RTJ Golf Trail. Very few know what Rulewich did for this project, and he says he "could care less. The people that need to know that I was heavily involved with the Trail know, and that is what is important. Those people are potential clients and my peers." Jones was age eighty-six when it was completed and essentially served as a sounding board for Rulewich's work.

The Jones firm closed its offices in 1995, and Rulewich and a select group from the office formed The Roger Rulewich Group.