Rockward grew up in Louisiana. He attended South Terrebonne High School. He played American football at college (for the South Terrebonne High School Gators) and was a member of the varsity team. He also took part in track and field. He was offered football scholarships at Duke University and Louisiana State University, but was interested in Grambling State University because of the coach Eddie Robinson. Rockward achieved high scores in his ACT and was offered a physics scholarship at Grambling State. At Grambling State, Rockward served as President of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity. He graduated with a B.S. degree cum laude in Physics in 1988. Rockward joined University at Albany, SUNY for his graduate study and earned an M.S. degree in physics in 1991. He moved to Georgia Institute of Technology where he received an M.S. degree in physics in 1994, and a Ph.D. degree in physics in 1997, this under the supervision of Donal O'Shea. Together they worked on diffractive optics and quadrature microscopy. Whilst completing his doctorate he worked as a research physicist at the Air Force Research Laboratory. He developed laser radar and guided munitions.