About the Center
The Bob Davis Veterans Center is a private 501©(3), non-profit organization with a desire to give back and help our homeless veterans integrate into society with dignity and pride. We provide food, shelter, and clothing along with faith-based counseling, job training, education and job placement assistance. The center has housing for 18 Veterans, a Mess Deck where any Veteran can come drink coffee, tea or lemonade, play pool, darts, or cards. We also have PG Vets Screen Printing & Embroidery store and offer homemade jellies and such to sell.
Who is Robert “Bob” Davis?
Bob Davis, a World War II Navy Veteran and machinist, moved to Mountain Home in 1977 and opened the Mountain Home Machine Shop. He was known as the one who could 'make things work' when no one else could figure it out. He made parts for antique motorcycles, airplanes and cars for people all over the world. He was known as a walking encyclopedia of knowledge and technology, of the old blended into the modern world. Bob rode a 1956 Motoguzzi for years around Mountain Home. You would see him every morning riding to breakfast at a local restaurant. He was a member of several vintage motorcycle organizations.
At the age of 14 he rode his first motorcycle, a 1925 Harley-Davidson, and was hooked on riding the rest of his life. He was always at local motorcycle events and would help anybody who needed help. He was like a father to all of us who ride.
Bob was also a brilliant inventor! During the mid-1950s Bob would go on to pioneer, among other things, the design and manufacture of plastic egg cartons, Styrofoam drinking cups, as well as aluminum foil products including the pans we all use to bake cookies. Davis was also involved in the tooling or the original machines that made plastic folding road barriers. Over the years he helped out a slew of people whose bikes had “mechanical indigestion problems,” and also hand fabricated replacement parts for antique and vintage BMWs. Basically, the IMPOSSIBLE stuff to find, Bob would fabricate, like valve lifter guides, pushrod tube installation tools, bronze bearing carriers for engines, transmission gears, etc. Many of his parts went to Craig “Vech” Vechorik at Bench Mark Works in Sturgis, MS.
We felt that we should honor Bob for all he has done to help others in the motorcycle community, so we named the Center after him. He was a father to all of us.
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