Born in 1946, Gary Stevens spent 27 years as a Fort Wayne, Ind., police officer and created the Fort Wayne Motorcycle Safety School, which is credited with providing safety training to thousands of riders.
During his law enforcement career, Smith was disturbed by the large number of motorcycle crashes that he investigated and wondered whether something could be done about it. A motorcyclist himself, he became a certified Motorcycle Safety Foundation instructor in 1983 and formed the Fort Wayne Motorcycle Safety School.
The school trained more than 5,000 riders in 13 years. He also created a court-referral system that sent riders with traffic violations to an Experienced RiderCourse. In addition, Smith developed a 54-hour program called C.O.P.S.—Controlled Operation Performance Skills—which trained police officers.
Stevens died of cancer on Sept. 9, 2001.