If you had a cold winter it got nailed by that. Otherwise it looks like it was already in poor condition before whatever made it burn happened. These like cool moist soils that are well aerated and drain well. The rooting zone of this one being fully exposed may be tipping the balance against it, apart from anything else.

We had a winter with an unusual amount of snow for sure . It looked just as sad all through last summer as well even though that sorry sight gave us a few beautiful flowers . The rhododendrons that are less then 5 ft from it look beautiful .what would you suggest I do for it ?

Never very reliable to diagnose from long distance based solely on photographs, but... The general appearance and the fact that it looked much the same last summer suggests the rhododendron is not receiving enough water. This often results from planting without loosening up the roots. The planting medium dries out and then becomes very difficult to rewet. The photograph also seems to show overly deep planting with lots of other plants (weeds?) growing directly on top of the rhododendron's root ball. These may well be out-competing the rhododendron for available water. Best thing to do: dig up the rhododendron. Loosen its roots. Soak for 30 minutes or so if they are dry. Remove all of the weeds or other vegetation. Replant with the top 10% of the root ball above grade. Mulch well with coarse conifer bark. Best time to do all this is just after bloom when rhododendrons are about to commence vigorous vegetative growth.

do you know the planting history??? .. i also suspect root issues ... ken

No I don't know the history of it. This is only me second summer in this house . The gardens have been long forgotten about and I'm trying to fix them and bring them back .

The garden that rhodo is in has 4 other rhodos and a maple tree as well as being taken over by weeds and Irises . I took over 70 irises out last yr alone and had most of the weeds out but over the winter they took over again and the irises have spread everywhere. There's other non spreading pretty flowers in there as well .