Willie G. Davidson is truly a Legend in his own time.
The American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) will name Willie G. Davidson an AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame Legend at an Induction Ceremony October 17 during its annual convention in Orlando, Florida.
Davidson is famous for designing the Harley-Davidson 1971 FX Super Glide and the 1977 FXS Low Rider, pioneering factory custom motorcycles, as well as the 1977 XLCR Sportster-based café racer. His designs marked a new beginning for the Harley-Davidson Motor Company, and reflected the then-new trend of custom-built motorcycles.
William Godfrey Davidson is the son of William H. Davidson, former President of Harley-Davidson, and grandson of company co-founder William A. Davidson. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he studied at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. After a stint in the design department at Ford Motor Company, he joined Harley-Davidson’s design department in 1963.
In addition to his own design work, he later became senior Vice President and chief styling officer as well as head of Harley-Davidson’s Willie G. Davidson Product Development Center in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, and was responsible for approving all of the company’s designs. In 1981 he was one of the men who bought the Harley-Davidson brand back from American Machine and Foundry, putting it on the way to becoming one of America’s most successful corporations.
Willie G. was inducted into the AMA Hall of Fame fifteen years ago in 1999. Now, as a Legend, he joins the elite of our motorcycling world.
If you want to learn more about the Davidson family, read Jean Davidson’s Growing Up Harley-Davidson: Memoirs of a Motorcycle Dynasty, published by Voyageur Press in 2003.
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