Rob DeRocker

Rob DeRocker’s introduction to St. Croix came as an 18-year-old, when his grandfather summoned him to visit in the condo he had bought back in the mid-1970s. Borrowing a line from the movie Jerry Maguire, the island “had him at hello.”

Rob became a perennial visitor from the interminable winters of Upstate New York, observing early on that “grandfathers in St. Croix get lonely -- especially in January and February – and need company.”

Fast forward to 2004 and Rob and his wife, Melinda, had the opportunity to purchase that same condo from that same grandfather. By then Rob had established a career in economic development marketing and media relations, helping communities ranging from Puerto Rico to New Zealand promote themselves for business investment and tourism.

Coincidentally, in the early 1990s, Rob’s clients included the U.S. Virgin Islands, working to promote the territory through the USVI’s Economic Development Authority.

Not long after he and Melinda purchase his grandfather’s condo, Rob approached Calabash founder Honnie Edwards to see if it made any sense to become a licensed real estate salesman. By then Rob was known on the island as an irrepressible promoter of St. Croix. That, combined with Rob’s wide web of contacts throughout the world led Honnie to an immediate, “Yep, I’ll sponsor you!”

When they are not in St. Croix Rob and Melinda spend their time in the Hudson Valley, just north of New York City. They are enamored of both places, but for them what makes St. Croix so special – beyond the year-round warmth and gin-clear Caribbean water – is the community. It’s simply wonderful.