BY JOE POTENTE
jpotente@kenoshanews.com

Ron Bachman could easily choose to focus on what's missing from his life, considering what's missing from his body.

That would be his legs — both of them, amputated when he was 4 years old, the result of a birth defect.

After shedding his artificial legs the day after his wedding, in 1979, Bachman took the wheel of an electronic scooter, from which he raised a daughter as a single parent and pursued a career in broadcasting.

More recently, the Michigan resident has taken to sharing his message of survival and tolerance as a speaker to audiences of all ages.

"The big message is quit worrying about what's gone and pay attention to what's left," Bachman said.

Bachman will bring his story to Kenosha and Racine next week, in presentations to elementary, middle and high school groups and a pair of public appearances at Palmen Automotive Group dealerships, his sponsor for his five-day tour here.

He'll stress the effects of bullying in schools, sharing stories about his own experiences as someone who is different.

"Ron comes in with half his body and a big smile on his face, and the kids who are overweight, the kids who are underweight, the ones with pimples on their faces ... they see themselves in me," Bachman said.

Triumph over adversity

Bachman, 52, spent his youth in a Detroit school for the disabled before he made the transition to a 3,000-student, traditional public high school.

Recounting a sort of Clark Kent-like existence, he spent his days on artificial legs and his nights walking around on his hands, a skill he mastered as an alternative to the uncomfortable prosthetics.

"What people didn't realize was, because I don't have my legs, I was always sitting," Bachman said. "It was sort of a bucket affair — I was 6 feet tall but I was still sitting."

A motorcycle enthusiast to this day, Bachman raised eyebrows as an adolescent with his purchase of a two-wheeled motorized minibike.

"Everybody said, 'You've got to get a go-cart; why would you get a minibike?'" Bachman said. "That's exactly why I got a minibike."

Stepping up

"Very seldom will you find a human being who becomes disabled who gives up and doesn't step up," he added later. "When you face adversity, you will step up to the plate and hit a grand-slam home run, I guarantee you."

Bachman faced that situation in the mid-1980s when he and his wife divorced and he found himself with custody of their then-4-year-old daughter, Alicia.

In need of a career to support his two-person family, Bachman attended a Detroit-area broadcasting school and landed a job delivering AAA traffic reports to radio stations across the upper Midwest.

One of his broadcast school instructors asked to profile him for a film, an almost decade-long project that became the 1998 documentary "Walk This Way," a chronicle of Bachman's triumph over adversity. Bachman said he flew to Los Angeles for the premiere once the project was completed.

"I actually stood in line and bought a ticket to my own movie," Bachman said. "It was so cool."

Palmen inspired

Andy Palmen, the president of Palmen Automotive Group dealerships in Kenosha and Racine, learned of Bachman from a mutual friend, the owner of a group of Chrysler dealerships in Michigan.

After he watched some of Bachman's presentations, Palmen said he knew he had to bring him to Wisconsin.

Bachman, Palmen said, has the ability to stop people and make them take a different look at their lives.

"When you talk to Ron, you see what kind of adversity people have overcome," Palmen said. "I think what it really does is it inspires people."

Here Feb. 1-5

Palmen brought Bachman to Kenosha last week to visit and discuss his upcoming appearances. On his Feb. 1-5 return visit, Bachman is scheduled to appear at Lance, Mahone and Washington middle schools, Holy Rosary Grade School, Harborside Academy and Bradford High School in Kenosha, plus a few schools in Racine.

The Palmen dealership appearances are set for 6:30 p.m. Feb. 2 at Palmen Dodge-Jeep of Racine, 8320 Washington Ave., and 6:30 p.m. Feb. 3 at Palmen Motors, 5431 75th St., in Kenosha.

For Bachman, meeting with people in this fashion has become yet one more chapter of his story, which he said is motivated in part by a saying that he encountered years ago.

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to end," Bachman said. "It's about learning how to dance in the rain."