Robert Beckley received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Management from Glendale College in Glendale, Arizona. He has served on the Board of Directors of Help Hospitalized Veterans since 1997. Robert is a successful small business owner and realtor in the area of Prescott, Arizona. He serves the community in a variety of ways and encourages others to give back through business and local community programs. Robert currently serves on the Northern Arizona Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care System Voluntary Service (VAVS) Committee. He also contributes his spare time as a volunteer at the VA medical facility in Prescott.

Serving on the Board of Directors of Help Hospitalized Veterans brings a sense of great humility and pride for Robert. He feels that it is a tremendous honor to be associated with an organization that has provided such a wonderful resource for America’s veterans and a way to extend an ongoing "thank you" to our hospitalized veterans.

Robert Beckley is married with three children. He enjoys golfing, horseback riding and spending time with his wife and family.

Roger Chapin is a graduate of Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont and a veteran of the U.S. Army Finance corps. Roger has founded a number of organizations that have benefited veterans as well as society at large.

Roger began his mission of assisting American combat soldiers when he established the Vietnam Gift Pac program which distributed over 600,000 Gift Pacs to forward area G.I.’s Vietnam. In 1971, he founded the Help Hospitalized Veterans (HHV) program after visiting Marines at the Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego. The program has significantly and positively changed the lives of America’s hospitalized veterans and active duty military personnel within the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Centers, 100 state veterans nursing homes and some 28 military hospitals throughout the world. One VA recreation director described the crafts kits as “…not to kill time, but to make time live.” With the support of generous donors, the HHV program has now distributed over 23 million therapeutic arts and crafts kits. With a simple caring donation of a craft kit, Help Hospitalized Veterans has brought millions of caring Americans closer to the men and women of the armed forces past and present. Lifelong pen pal relationships have also been created because of HHV and this simple idea.

In 1990, Roger Chapin founded the special project G.I. Gift Pac, which distributed 880,000 pacs to American combat troops stationed in the Persian Gulf. This was a project that brought praise from military and political supporters alike and yet another way to demonstrate to America’s military community that the public supports them and will never forget their sacrifices.

In 2004, Roger founded the Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes Foundation, which has provided financial and other assistance to over 6,000 severely wounded, and very needy War on Terror veterans and their families.

Roger’s private accomplishments include being a successful real estate developer in San Diego County, founder of “Fun Art” creative coloring sets and the creator of USAopoly, the distributor of very popular editions of Monopoly. Roger and his wife Elizabeth have four children and two grandchildren. They are long time residents of San Diego, California where they enjoy the outdoors and exercise.

Roger Chapin is not one to rest on his personal accomplishments. He continues to pursue a variety of programs to assist veterans and active duty military personnel and their families. He constantly strives to offer all Americans a vehicle to express their thanks and gratitude to our nation’s veterans, past and present.

Thomas Arnold retired from the California Department of Veterans Affairs in January, 2003. Prior to this retirement he was Administrator of the Southern California Veterans Home in Chula Vista from September 24, 1999 through January, 2003. Prior to this appointment Mr. Arnold served with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for over 26 years. He held the position of Director or Associate Director at the VA Medical Centers in San Diego, California; Southern California System of Clinics; Iron Mountain, Michigan; Chicago, Illinois; Fayetteville, North Carolina; and Lake City, Florida. Mr. Arnold has also served as a management analyst with the Veterans Administration Inspector General’s Office and as a senior health system specialist with the VA’s headquarters office in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Arnold received his bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University and his master’s degree from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. He is a diplomat in the American College of Health Care Administrators.

Mr. Arnold is an Army veteran of Viet Nam where was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received in combat. He is a lifetime member of the Military Order of the Purple Heart and Disabled American Veterans as well as a member of the VFW, American Legion, and AMVETS. Mr. Arnold and his wife Jean Marie Arnold have two grown sons, Michael and Anthony. Although retired from government service, Mr. Arnold presently works as a professional musician since moving to St. Petersburg, Florida in May, 2003.

Leonard Rogers is a Partner and Chief Executive Officer for Health Care Data Inc. and Health Care Data Systems, a consulting/education/software development/performance measurement and nationwide reference database company. Prior to his current position with Health Care Data, he was the Medical Center Director and CEO for the San Diego VA Medical Center, a large tertiary, research and teaching hospital, affiliated with the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) which includes hospital based home care, hospice, pharmacy, durable medical equipment, spinal cord injury and rehabilitation.

Rogers served in the US Air Force from 1962 to 1966 and was in Bien Hoa, Vietnam from 1965 to 1966. He has received numerous awards, including the Vietnam Service Medal and the Air Force Commendation Medal, four US Senate Certificates of Merit, eight US Congressional Certificates of Merit, two California Congressional Certificates of Recognition and a Letter of Recognition from the Governor of California for Outstanding Leadership and Commitment to Area Agencies on Aging and for contributions to Senior Citizens.

Gorham L. Black III, received his Bachelors of Science degree in History from Howard University, graduating as a Distinguished Military Graduate and commissioned as a Second Lieutenant of Infantry in the U.S. Army in 1963. He served two tours in Vietnam, the first from 1965 to 1966 as a Vietnamese Infantry Battalion Advisor and the second in 1971 as a District Senior Advisor. Gorham served as the Chairman of Emergency Services for the American Red Cross in the state of Maryland and is a member of the Central Maryland Chapter’s Board of Directors.

His military service awards include the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Air Medal Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, and many others. Gorham went on to serve the U.S. Army in a broad range of command and staff positions in the U.S. and abroad, while also obtaining a Master of Arts degree in International Relations from the Maxwell School, Syracuse University. Gorham is a graduate of the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff College and the National Defense University, The National War College.

Gorham completed his military service in 1990 retiring as Commander, U.S. Army Garrison, Fort George G. Meade, in Maryland. Since his retirement from the military, Gorham has held a number of positions, including Senior Assistant to the President and Associate Vice President for Administration of Howard University, Washington D.C. and Executive Assistant to the President of Albany State University in Albany, Georgia.

Mike Lynch is a Vietnam Veteran serving as the Executive Director of Help Hospitalized Veterans (HHV). A native Texan transplanted in California as a result of his over six years serving in the United States Navy serving aboard the USS KING (DLG10) and the USS TULARE (LKA112). Throughout his over 17 years at HHV he has been instrumental in the many positive changes of the organization. As the Executive Director of HHV, he is charged with the task of craft kit development and program services for America's veterans. Lynch has fiduciary responsibility for a $45 million operating budget.

Lynch initiated craft purchases through the Compensated Work Therapy/Incentive Therapy (CWT/IT), a Department of Veterans Affairs rehabilitation program which allows veterans to manufacture craft kits for distribution to other veterans. To date HHV has purchased $4.2 million worth of crafts through the CWT/IT program with five VA Medical Centers participating. He implemented a program that provides Veterans Hospitals with voice activated computers and portable WebTV systems for veterans to travel the world wide web while hospitalized. As the Executive Director, he is responsible for providing computers, videos and other educational materials to disabled veterans that are homebound as a direct result of combat.

The distribution of therapeutic arts and crafts has been the founding program of HHV and Lynch has taken the distribution to almost a million products per year. Lynch has been a driving force for the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival since 1991 which to date HHV has contributed over $700,000 to promote and Co-Sponsor this extraordinary event. He initiated HHV’s involvement in Veterans Affairs Voluntary Services of the VA. He is a member of the National Advisory Committee (NAC) for Voluntary Services representing HHV as a service organization. Lynch also is also a member of the NAC’s Executive Committee.

Lynch is responsible for the research and establishment of the HHV Craft Care Specialist (CCS) program that is now in 51 VA Hospitals and most recently the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D. C and Landstuhl Army Regional Medical Center, in Germany. This program allows CCS’s, who are paid HHV staff members, to work hand in hand with medical staff in distribution and teaching craft therapy to hospitalized veterans. The program receives tremendous accolades from VA management and staff as it continues to augment VA’s mission of putting America’s veterans first.

As a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, AMVETS, The American Legion and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, he continues to make a difference in veteran's and youth lives. With two sons, he is a strong advocate of improving society through education of youth about the history of America’s veterans and through proper focus of their activities. Lynch is a true southern gentleman that advocates courtesy and respect to all those that focus on patriotism and the liberties of a free world. An outdoorsman that enjoys camping, fishing, rodeos, golf, the desert and the open space. A true friend and advocate for America’s veterans and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Mike Lynch is a fair and persistent individual that continues to motivate those he meets to support all programs that recognizes America’s veterans. A leader by action, and a humble person by character who places others before himself.