Friends honor Belcher’s legacy of making a difference

Dave Belcher was one of those people that others could easily look up to.

“You look up ‘good, quality citizen,’ and his picture should be the depiction,” said Buddy Lockhart, Belcher’s friend of about 40 years.

A longtime Vestavia Hills resident and the founder of Royal Automotive, Belcher was involved in his community through city council, charity work and his church, Shades Mountain Baptist. The church is where Lockhart and fellow friend Henry Long met Belcher, through their Sunday school class that continues to meet.

“He’s been involved in virtually everything that church has done,” Lockhart said.

“There’s not much in the city, the business or the church end of it that he didn’t have a really heavy hand in,” Long said.

Not only was Belcher generous with both time and money, Long said, he didn’t need to let others know about it. Long recalled one occasion when two young women from Big Oak Ranch children’s home came to talk to their Sunday school class.

He said Belcher was inspired by their story and decided to give them each a car to use for two years.

“A few of us knew that, but not many knew that,” Long said.

When Belcher died Jan. 31, his friends were looking for a way to pay tribute to him. They considered renaming their Sunday school group in his memory, but Long said they wanted something more long-lasting.

“We’re not young men anymore. So, we needed to look at something that, whatever we did, was going to last more than three or four years after we got it started,” Long said.

Big Oak Ranch was one of Belcher’s favorite causes because of the work they do with children whose pasts are filled with abuse, neglect or abandonment. So his friends set up the David R. Belcher Memorial Scholarship to help children at Big Oak Ranch afford a college or trade school education.

Since they came up with the idea, Belcher’s Shades Mountain Baptist friends have raised more than $30,000, with pledges totaling about $14,000 over the next two years.

“Both of us and everybody in our class is astounded at the response that we got,” Long said. “We got it off to a right good start.”

Lockhart and Long said any donation made to Big Oak Ranch can be designated for the Belcher Memorial Scholarship.

They want to grow the endowed fund to $100,000 and award scholarships funded by the accrued interest.

“If we raise that kind of money, the earnings off this could pay for maybe two, maybe three scholarships [per year],” Lockhart said.

Big Oak Ranch will choose the scholarship recipient each year. Lockhart said they will present their first scholarship later this month, but in future years will give it during the school year to help the recipients plan for their futures. Long said he hopes the scholarship will help people remember Belcher as a generous person even if they never met him.

“Dave loved children; he loved the Big Oak; he loved our Sunday school class. This is really the reason we’re doing this, because of our love for Dave,” Lockhart said. “I’d like to put his picture on Mount Rushmore, but I can’t. I feel that strong about it.”

While there are plenty of good causes out there, Lockhart said the scholarship — and Big Oak Ranch as a whole — is “as good of a ministry” as possible to help.

“He’s made a difference in my life. I’m looking at you straight on and because of what he is, the man that he was, the friend that he was — even though my best [hasn’t] come out yet, I’m still working on it — he brings the best in me,” Lockhart said.