Dating from January 1940, he was labour representative and shop stewart at Skabo.
[1] Wickstrøm was executed during the state of martial law which followed the so-called milk strike (Melkestreiken), together with the labour lawyer Viggo Hansteen.
These two were the first labour representatives to be executed during the German occupation, and as such gained a great symbolic value for the continued resistance.
After the war, Hansteen and Rolf Wickstrøm were buried in Vår Frelsers gravlund.
In 1948, a memorial was erected in granite with bronze relief at the site of execution at Årvoll in the Bjerke district of Oslo.