man. To get the funds to keep buying parts, he was working on other people’s rods in his garage and doing HVAC work on the side. Then everything lined up and he decided it was time to be a transmission man. The shop he procured had a great second space he started using for working on street rods on the side and by that time the ’46 Chevy had gotten the couple involved in the Northwest Arkansas Street Rod Association. A ’31 Ford pickup he was working on got him to his first Street Rod Nationals in Oklahoma City in 1980 to buy parts for the project. His street rod side projects consisted of buying almost completed (or poorly completed) rods and fix- ing them up, combined with working on other peo- ple’s cars/projects. Roger worked his way up to build- ing complete rods for people and he joined the
Arkansas Safety Team in 2006 and was hooked almost immediately. The State Safety Director posi- tion opened, and Roger jumped at the chance and just a few years later, Jerry Glessner moved up to the National Safety Director position and tapped Roger to be the South Central Safety Director that includes much of the south. As you can imagine, Roger loves the technical aspects of Safety Inspections, and with the help of Carol he got all his team’s paperwork right and ran one of the best performing Safety Teams, all drama free. When the National Safety Director position opened in 2023, Roger was picked out of some great competition. Today he and all the Safety Team volunteers carry on the legacy of kin- dred spirits within this wonderful world of hot rod- ding “NSRA Style.” APRIL 2026 65
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