ceremo nies, the grand openi ng ceremony featur ed brief speeches by Mary
Lo u Prou ty, the mayor of Westerville;
O hio Congressman J ohn Kasich ; Dal
Smilie, cha irman of the American
Motorcycl e Heritage Fo u nda tio n;"
Joh n Hasty. chairman of the AMA;
Mari lvn T omasi, Ohio State director
of tourism: Robert Forbes, son of th e
late Malcol m Forb es and president of
Fo rbes FYI a nd vice -p resi de nt of
Forbes. Inc.; Oh io Assemblywoma n Jo
Ann Davidson ; Oleg Podeneshko, a
Soviet motorcyclist who was completing a coast-to-coast tour of America;
and comedia n Jay Leno, an AMA Life
Member. who concl uded hi s speech by
an no unci ng that he was making a
$5000 donation to the AMHF.
Ina ugural exhibits at the mu seum
include " Women In Motorcycling,"
whic h features a 40-foot mural by artist
Paul Ja miol celebrati ng the role th at
(Left) Robert Forbes, Jay Leno
and John Hasty unveiled the
museum sign. (Below left)
Former ra cing champ Jim
Davis and curr en t champ Chris
Ca rr. (Below) Marlon Brando
looks down at some of the
nearly 3000 people who
attended the opening.
Thousands attend museum opening
Photos by Cheryl Blair/American Motorcyclist
Ppro xima tely 3000 motorcyclists
and other in terested parties were
on hand for the gra nd opening
of the Motorcycle Heritage Museum on
T h ursday, August 16. in Westerville.
Ohio.
T he museum, whi ch features 7000square-feet of exh ibit space at one end
of the American Motorcyclists Associat ion (AMA) headquarters build ing, is
the effort of countless hours of work
by the seve n- ma n u ncom pe nsa ted
board o f trustees of th e Ameri can
Mo torcycl e H er ita ge Founda tion
(AMH F), a non-profit, tax -exem p t
A
18
public foundat ion tha t was esta bl ished
in 1982. The board is composed of
cu rrent and former AMA trus tees and
officers of The Antique Motorcycle
Club of America. The AMH F's goal
was to establish a museum and that
has been done under its bylaws. wh ich
req ui re it to: " Opera te a museum and
o therwise to mainta in and use its
property for th e pu rpo se of preservin g
the her itage of m o to rcycl in g a n d
educatin g th e publ ic in respect of
mo torcycli ng and related subjects."
With Larry Maiers, host of ESPN 's
Mot o Wor ld , serving as ma ster of
