Paul Slavik, NOHVCC Hall of Fame inductee, American Motorcyclist Association Dud Perkins Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, and dedicated OHV advocate has written an autobiography about his amazing life that includes passages describing the formation of NOHVCC. At the time (1990) Paul worked for Honda and was a key contributor to getting NOHVCC off the ground.
Paul said, “For anybody that’s interested I have just finished my autobiography. It spans 80 years and took me about two and a half years to complete. It covers growing up in Los Angeles in the 50s, surfing, racing motorcycles in the desert, working for the Southern Pacific Railroad as a fireman, joining the National Guard and learning to drive tanks and participating in the 1965 Watts Riots, of course, raising a family, working for American Honda and my final career as a commissioner for California State Parks. I originally ordered enough copies for my family, but several people have asked how to buy a copy or possibly get one on a loaner status. If you’re interested, please contact [email protected] as I am about to order a second printing.”
Paul indicated that there may also be an opportunity soon to download a digital version of the book.
Excerpt from “My Story, An Autobiography, Paul Slavik:
Their (Honda’s) plan was to fund a national organization of off-highway vehicle influentials that could become an important voice for the recreation. My job was to find people across the country that would be interested in forming this new organization. Initially people greeted me with skepticism. Most of them already belonged to local clubs and organizations, but in reality those organizations did not talk to other organizations so there was very little unified voice. To make a long story a little shorter I set up a conference, we hired a facilitator from the National 4H Council and a small group of these folks met at the Lake Arrowhead Resort and Conference Center in July of 1990. Honda was the full supporter of this initiative that had a $5 million budget. We projected having conferences 2x a year in various locations around the country and Honda would pay all costs. At the second meeting we asked for suggestions about naming the organization. I ended up coming up with the name of National Off Highway Vehicle Conservation Counsel or NOHVCC, a 501C3 nonprofit based in California. This organization is now supported by the entire motorcycle industry and is greatly respected within federal and state land management agencies.
More about Paul from AMA’s press release announcing him as a recipient of the Dud Perkins Lifetime Achievement Award, February 2021.
Slavik participated in AMA-sanctioned competition events in Southern California and the Midwest from the early 1960s to the late 1980s. He worked for American Honda for nearly three decades. Among his positions, he was Honda’s OHV press coordinator and later its national off-highway vehicle coordinator. He retired in 2005.
While at Honda, Slavik helped create the National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council in 1990, was involved the Off Road PALs Program and was a member of the California OHV Stakeholders. He also served on the California Roundtable on Recreation, Parks and Tourism. Slavik served on the Motorcycle Industry Council’s Land Use Committee and was an ATV and dirt bike instructor.
Slavik helped create Honda’s Environmental Learning Center in Colton, Calif., and was instrumental in the development of the San Bernardino National Forest OHV Volunteer Program. He also helped bring the National Youth Project Using Minibikes to the California state parks.
After he retired, Slavik helped coordinate the route designation workshops for the NOHVCC and did some on-the-ground route inventory work for Advanced Resource Solutions in the desert.
