Bob Walker has experienced a majority of things throughout his 65 years of life. He was born and raised in Cambridge, Ohio. He was not very interested in school growing up, but attending high school made him find his love for wrestling. Walker started weight lifting to be a better wrestler for his high school wrestling team and later on he wrestled for the United States Navy wrestling team. After his time in the military, he enjoyed weight lifting to keep himself in shape and decided he wanted to compete for it.

Bob entered his first weight-lifting competition in 1982. Two years later, he opened up Walker’s Gym in Fairfield, Illinois and helped coach the Fairfield Wrestling Team while he was still working on his weight-lifting career. Walker competed in Aurora, Illinois and won his first USA National Championship in 1998. This made him go on to win a world championship the same year in Gartz, Austria and another in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2000. When Bob was asked what the best memory of his weight-lifting career was, he answered “The memory I will never forget is when I won my second world championship, because my daughter, Rachel, came with me when I accepted the award.” He is working on preparing to win another championship. He is motivated to do this because he wants his two youngest daughters to witness this win and accept the award with him.

Walker sold his gym in 1994 and started working in prisons. He has worked in multiple positions such as co-officer, sergeant, lieutenant, all the way up to major. We worked in 3 prisons throughout his lifetime and retired at the age of 59. 

Bob owns his own home gym that is free for anyone wanting to workout and works as a Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Wayne City High School Basketball Teams. His goal is to make them more competitive through their certain strengths.

When asked what Bob Walker means to him, basketball player Taj McKinney answered, “Bob has been a weight-training, basketball, and most importantly a life coach to me ever since I started working with him in 8th grade. I feel very lucky for having such a great place to workout and get better as an athlete. We have become very close and spend a lot of time together. I look up to him a lot and can’t wait to get back in the gym after basketball season.”

Bob Walker is an inspiration to the people he works with and dedicated to the things he loves. If you know Bob, you know he will always have a good story to tell about all of the people he has met, the things he has seen, and everything he has experienced.