More than $2,100 donated to Vietnam Veterans Memorial in honor of late OOIDA board member
In memory of OOIDA Board Member and U.S. Army veteran Steve Davenport, more than $2,100 will be donated to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.
Davenport, 70, of Lewisville, Texas, died unexpectedly of natural causes on Nov. 8, 2018. He was a member of OOIDA’s Board of Directors since 2011 and was a staunch advocate for military veterans.
The Association raised $1,069 during last week’s fall board meetings in Grain Valley, Mo., to be donated to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund in Davenport’s honor. Run for the Wall’s Missouri chapter agreed to match that amount, bringing the total to $2,138.
Davenport was well known in the trucking and veteran communities. He drove more than 33 years as a company driver and more than 15 as an owner-operator.
He served in the U.S. Army from 1969-71 and in the Army Reserves from 1971-75. After his service was complete, he became an active participant with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall.
For more than three decades, starting in the 1980s, Davenport made the annual Memorial Day pilgrimage to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. He rode a customized 1990 Harley Davidson Softail in honor of high-school friend Robert Cupp, who was killed in 1968 in Vietnam.
In 2016, Davenport pulled the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Replica to the Mid-America Trucking Show. Davenport was dedicated to educating people on the sacrifices made by fallen soldiers and their families.
“Freedom isn’t free,” Davenport said at the time. “The cost was more than 58,000 purple hearts.”
Related News
