Motorcycle dream job with Harley-Davidson

June 18th, 2015

MILWAUKEE Growing up skiing and boating on Grayson Lake, Nathan Boyd never dreamed of a job with America’s most legendary motorcycle company.

“I rode dirt bikes from the age of 5 through college, but I’d never been on a street bike until I joined the Harley-Davidson Motor Company,” said Boyd, a member of the Boyd County High School class of 1988 who now works as director of product integrity for Harley-Davidson in Milwaukee.

With hands on at every point in the development of a new Harley-Davidson machine, Boyd and his team are among the first to put rubber on the road in a program designed to pursue the singular goal of rider safety.

Boyd said his road to Milwaukee began with lots of family time on local waters.

“We spent pretty much every waking moment on Grayson Lake. My uncle had a house boat and we had a ski boat. I really believed with all my heart that I was going to be a boat designer,” he said, explaining he had long known he wanted uphold family tradition and become some sort of an engineer.

After studying mechanical engineering at the University of Kentucky, Boyd went to work for the Brother Typewriter Co. in Bartlett, Tenn. where he taught other engineers to use Pro-Engineer software. He adds he was well prepared for study at UK after one year on a full scholarship at what was Ashland Community College. After going to work for the typewriter company (where he never worked with a typewriter), he later had a chance to go to work in the field he had dreamed of, although it didn’t turn out to be his destiny.

“I had an opportunity to work for Yamaha Boat Co. there in Tennessee and I thought it was everything I was looking for.  I’m a man of faith and my wife and I prayed about it. I turned the offer down,” he said, noting the unexpected offer to work for Harley-Davidson followed shortly thereafter.

“I fell in love with the company and the place,” he said.

His wife, 1987 Paul G. Blazer graduate Janni (Farrar) Boyd had “never lived north of the Mason-Dixon line,” but also found an instant passion for Wisconsin. “She loves it up here too,” he said. Riders in that area enjoy a riding season typically from April through December.

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