Rhodes to Success: Former Track and Field Standout Now Leads His Own Teams

Written by Doug Goodnough

Albert Rhodes, ’93, has had to clear many hurdles in his professional career. He credits his time as a standout student-athlete on the Hillsdale College men’s track and field team for helping him manage his career path.

“One thousand percent,” said Rhodes, who recently began a new role with Raytheon, a defense contractor. “I have a good foundation, a team-oriented foundation, you know, going from high school to Hillsdale. Hillsdale formed a lot of those attributes in regard to the competitiveness, being able to bring people along. I am driven and understand that you have to have a certain type of work ethic to be successful.”

As a standout high school athlete at Detroit Lutheran West, Rhodes first heard of Hillsdale College when his track and field team competed at the state meet hosted by the College.

“I won the hurdles. I won the long jump,” Rhodes said of his performance at the meet. “We came in first in the four by one [relay] and first in the four by two [relay].”

Then-Hillsdale Head Coach Bill Lundberg was in attendance and took note of Rhodes’ performance. He offered him a scholarship on the spot. After a brief recruitment, he was officially a Charger.

Rhodes made a big impact on the track in the hurdles and in the jumps. In fact, he claimed conference titles in both the long and triple jump and earned Athlete of the Meet honors at the 1992 indoor Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships.

“I was the only hurdler, and I was really the only long jumper,” he said. “We didn’t have a triple jumper. I got acclimated to triple jump when I got there. Then it was mostly focusing on the triple jump and the technique. It was a lot to learn. It was difficult to learn, but I ended up thriving.”

Rhodes’ arrival at Hillsdale opened up a track pipeline for Hillsdale, with high school teammates DeShawn Meadows, ’95, and Sean Harper, ’95, eventually joining him on campus as teammates.

“DeShawn and I were really close,” Rhodes said of the eventual two-sport athlete and Hillsdale Hall of Famer. “He was preparing for his decathlon, and I would show him what to do in long jump, what to do in the triple jump, and what to do in the hurdles. He was just an all-world athlete.”

After graduating with his degree in business, Rhodes entered the automotive industry, eventually becoming an operations manager for Daimler Chrysler. During his career, he has also worked in the aerospace, aviation, and energy industries in similar roles. In 2022, he accepted a position with Amazon as a regional operations director, and just started in June of 2026 with Raytheon, recently moving to Tucson, Arizona.

“I decided to take a position with Raytheon for a senior director role, and I’ll be over a campus in Tucson that builds missiles for the U.S. government,” Rhodes said.

In December of 2025, he completed his doctorate, receiving his DBA from Capella University in general management.

“I wanted to do something that was practical,” said Rhodes, who also has his MBA from Elmhurst University. “My capstone dissertation was on the impact of organizational conflict on supply chain warehouse distribution performance and the strategic role of management in conflict resolution.”

He has five children ranging in age from 33 to eight. His youngest son is into hockey, which is something Rhodes is still adjusting to.

“Coming from Detroit, I played basketball, football, and track,” he said. “Hockey didn’t even come up, so it’s fun watching him.”

His parents, married for 40 years, still live in Detroit, and he enjoys running to stay in shape.

Soon after graduating from Hillsdale, Rhodes took up golf, which is now a passion.

“To feed that competitive spirit, I decided to pick up golf,” said Rhodes, who once had a two handicap and considered playing professionally. “I never had a lesson, and I’m self-taught. I was competitive at one point in time, but now it’s more of just going out and having fun.”

He said he is hoping to get back to campus in October to see his former coach inducted into Hillsdale’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

“Bill was such a great coach,” he said of Lundberg. “You could hear him in practice yelling for us to go hard or faster. You could hear him at the meets cheering us on. It was just a great experience.

“He brought a family aspect to the team. We really cared about each other. We promoted success.”

Doug Goodnough, '90, is Hillsdale’s senior director of Alumni Marketing. He enjoys connecting with fellow alumni in new and wonderful ways.

Published in June 2026

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