Trained as a lawyer, he settled in Penzance in partnership with George Dennis John.   

The firm became Rodd & Cornish and Rodd held many official posts in the town: town clerk from 1847, clerk to the Board of Guardians, superintendent registrar. He was also appointed to be the  head distributor of stamps in Cornwall, a role he performed from 1844 to 1867.
Rodd wrote over twenty papers on the ornithology of Cornwall and his books include ‘A List of British Birds as a Guide to the Ornithology of Cornwall, particularly in the Land's End District’ and ‘The Birds of Cornwall and the Scilly Islands’.

Rodd retired in 1878 leaving his partnership to Thomas Cornish. He died, unmarried, and was buried in St. Clare Cemetery.

The esteem in which he was held in was demonstrated by the public subscription for a carillon (a keyboard instrument with twenty-three bells which plays tunes mechanically) to be installed in St. Mary’s Church, at a cost of £300, in his memory.