Use controls above or click here to open this Hometown Heroes podcast in a new window

86-year-old Max Rouff of Fresno, CA appears on episode #137 of Hometown Heroes, debuting October 23, 2010.

Max and Marlene Rouff

Orphaned as a child, nearly killed on Iwo Jima, the 86-year-old Marine Corps veteran has beaten some significant odds to live a successful life. A 1943 graduate of Los Banos (CA) High School who now lives in Fresno, Rouff defines success not just in the five corporations he founded and led, but in the 6 children, 16 grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren who never would have been born if he didn’t make it home from World War II.

Max Rouff and fellow Marines on Saipan.

That’s Max in the foreground, wearing ear protection for his work with artillery, and holding a captured Japanese flag on Saipan. It was on Iwo Jima that he was injured by shrapnel from a land mine and fragments from a hand grenade, and carried off in a body bag. Temporarily blinded, he needed multiple back operations and more than two months of rehabilitation on Guam before returning to the United States. Max says he thanks God every week for the life he’s been able to lead. I’m thankful to know the Rouffs and to have heard their story, and I think you’ll feel the same after listening to Max on the radio.