He grew up on Indian reservations in Idaho, Utah and Montana, where his father constructed roads for the federal government.
He spent parts of the year on his grandparents' ranch near Spray, Oregon, which was primitive and had no indoor plumbing or electricity.
[4] Roderick Asher began his career in Republic, Washington, working underground in a gold mine.
[7] In 1970, he left Alaska for Chihuahua, Mexico, where he worked for NL Industries as an exploration geologist, evaluating precious metal resources for the company in many remote regions of the Sierra Madres, often in areas only accessible by mule.
Although based in Colorado, most of his work was in Mexico and South America for FMC Corporation and Tenneco.
Roderick Asher was killed in a single vehicle accident on Interstate 80 on August 20, 1997 near Battle Mountain, Nevada, en route to a project near Ely while working as a consultant.