Bob Watkins Automobile mechanic

Bob Watkins

John Temple Ligon

Temple@TheColumbiaStar.com

Bob Watkins was born in Ridgeway. At age two he moved to Camden where his father became the company doctor for DuPont. Watkins started scouts at the earliest allowable age and worked his way to Eagle Scout. In the summers he delivered Edisto milk door-to-door until 10:30 in the morning, shifting after running milk to manning a vegetable stand.

Between putting milk by the door and vegetables in the bag, Watkins had plenty of walkaround money through high school.

He mastered the trumpet, and his Camden High School Band won best in state honors two years running. But when he left Camden for The Citadel, Watkins didn't want to be in Band Company, so he kept quiet about his music prowess. Instead, he became an athletic trainer for the football team.

Watkins graduated in 1972 as the head trainer and went directly into the governor's office of offender rehabilitation, becoming something of a statistician as he called around the state every day to survey the overnight lockups.

He left the governor's office the next year to work for Daniel Construction as they built DuPont's second nylon plant in Camden. That was the same year Watkins began to understand Mercedes mechanics. He paid $175 for a 1957 Mercedes 219 and began bringing it up to standards.

Once the 219 was running as it should, Watkins went all out and paid $1,500 for a 1964 190D. The nearest well-tracked Mercedes mechanic to Camden was Sarge in Elgin, who taught Watkins as he repaired his automobiles.

Watkins left Daniel Construction for the Richland County laboratories, where he was known as V.D. Bob, central S.C.'s most respected healthcare worker on the transmissibles' trails.

By the fall of '76, Watkins's day job was putting together MRFIT, multiple risk file intervention trial. It was his job to interview likely candidates for heart disease and intervene. Also, in the daytime, he earned his master's degree in health education. By night he was working on his personal stable of four different models of Mercedes.

When the first Reagan administration cut the federal funding for MRFIT, Watkins knew he had to stay in the mechanic's bay full time. He wanted to. As he would put it, do what you love and the money will follow eventually.

Starting out his business behind Tasty Bakery on Forest Drive, Watkins learned to embrace German automotive engineering, particularly the fuel injection systems. He was soon recognized as a fuel injection specialist.

In 1988, Watkins moved to his current location on Commerce Drive, somewhat halfway between Owens Field and Rosewood Drive.

Over the past 10 years the biggest change in his business has been the technology. Watkins has on the floor an OBDIII (on-board diagnostics machine) and other machinery to keep him abreast with the dealers and the assembly plants. His staff is a collection of automotive technicians, not mechanics.

Typically on most any day, Bob Watkins Import Repair has about 15 cars in various stages of repair.

On the side Watkins maintains his status as a performing magician, the way Johnny Carson started out, but Watkins stuck with it. He gives magic shows for charity.

Watkins and his wife of 22 years and also his office manager, Kimberly, have three children: son Benjamin, 21, budding mechanical engineer; son Wales, 16, Spring Valley High academic standout; daughter Eva Nolle, 4, future Microsoft CEO.