About
What is Living Proof?
Living Proof aims to be an all-encompassing suicide awareness and prevention organization. We believe that as long as you have a heartbeat, you have hope–and we want to prove that by bringing together survivors of suicide and creating a community of people who care about fighting our suicide crisis.
One such survivor is our founder and CEO, Bob Skelton. Bob is living proof that anyone can come back from struggles with suicide. Read more of his story in his bio below.
Bob's Story
Bob Skelton was born in Zenith, WV, and his humble beginnings started when he was born in his grandparents’ home, with the delivering physician being given two chickens for payment. One can only imagine how many chickens a delivery would be worth today.
When Bob was five years old, he and his family relocated to Winston-Salem, NC, where Bob attended grade school and high school. After high school, he was drafted into the Army for two years, with 18 months of his 24-month service spent in Okinawa serving our country. Bob faced one of his first setbacks as a young adult when, just before his Dad’s retirement as a long-distance truck driver, his Dad was struck by lightning and died.
Bob continued on after returning home from the military. He entered the prosthetic program at Bowman-Grey School of Medicine for two years and then transferred to Duke Medical Center for an additional two years. During the summer between his schooling, Bob married his wife Sue, and they began their marriage in Durham, NC. After completing his schooling and passing the Boards for certification, Bob and his wife Sue moved to Florence, SC, where Bob began practicing his profession. After a couple of years, he was contacted by a few friends to start a business, and off they went.
Bob faced a second setback when the big recession of the late 1970s to 1980s hit, causing Bob to lose it all. This was the lowest point in his life, where he felt like a failure as a husband, dad, and businessman. After four years of dealing with the pressure of owing $90,000 at 19.5% interest, sleeping only 2 to 3 hours per night left his body wrecked and in constant pain 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Bob wanted relief from the physical and mental pressure, so he planned to take his life.
If you are thinking about taking your life, let people know and get help if you can’t help yourself. Who knows where life will take you if you don’t give up. If you have breath and a heartbeat, there is HOPE.
The Living Proof Truck
Tom Dell built two half-scale semis for his five- and seven-year-old children, which they drove around their 5-acre home and in parades. He then built a ¾ scale semi to pull a 40’ trailer with the two 1/2 scale semis with matching trailers; one a flatbed and one a van trailer. They were invited to Ag Shows around Illinois and Missouri.
Dave Spurgeon of Hayward, CA happened to see a segment of Paul Harvey’s show about the ½ scale semis and contacted Mr. Dell. He flew to Pittsfield, Illinois, where a contract for building the ¾ scale show truck was signed.
The truck began as 2-4” x 6”x20’ steel tubing laying on a welding table. All of Tom’s drawings were in his head. He knew it would need cross members and spring mounts, and it was just a matter of putting it together from there. Things like wheel size, axles, lights, cab and sleeper size, and other details would make it a good-looking truck. All metal was bent by hand. Give him a cutting torch, ball-peen hammer, and welder; he could build anything.
It took approximately 2-1/2 years and 10,000 man-hours to build, using 2-3 men occasionally. Since he was the owner-operator of a steel fabrication business, he couldn’t devote full-time to building it. A friend of his who owned White Auto Body in Pittsfield, Illinois, painted the truck. All parts were chromed in Rock Island, Illinois, so part of the waiting time was required. The exhaust guards were made to scale by Kenworth Company.
The truck won Best-in-Show at the 26th annual Auto Rama Show in Santa Rosa, California. A picture of the truck was used on T-Shirts at the show the following year.