Robert Jennings Leatham was born to Nyle and Carol Leatham on January 27, 1961, at the Southside Hospital in Mesa, Arizona. It was a cold, rainy afternoon when Carol went into labor (she thought she just had a stomach ache), yet the warmth that filled her hospital room later that night when Rob was born was overwhelming.
“When I brought Rob home from the hospital, Rob’s older brother, Alan, was not sure what to think. Alan wouldn’t hug or look at me. He walked around me in circles as I sat on the floor with Rob, waiting for some recognition. Alan didn’t understand what was so special about this 7-pound, 9-ounce blob of a baby. As a matter of fact, no one in the room knew just how special the baby really was …”
Carol Leatham
From the time Rob could walk, his mom remembers that he always carried a stick. Wherever he went, whatever he did, he was accompanied by a stick. She thinks it was his weapon of choice before the guns were introduced!
Rob developed an interest in firearms at an early age, and, as he grew up, he was fortunate enough to be surrounded by the thing he had come to love most – GUNS. He doesn’t remember NOT shooting. His earliest childhood memories are from the age of 5 or 6, and they entail the many weekends that his mom and dad would pack up the family, dogs included, and head to the desert to shoot. At this point, Rob had another brother, David, and a new little sister, Susan, and they all spent a good portion of their childhood shooting and competing in the beautiful Arizona Sonoran Desert with handguns, shotguns and rifles of every sort. Tin cans and paper plates were the preferred targets. Amazingly enough, though, Rob was very seldom the winner in the family battles!
On Rob’s 12th birthday, he got his very first gun. The family had gone out to the desert where Rob opened the Smith & Wesson Model 34 revolver. Nyle and Carol will never forget the look on his face. He was definitely surprised and he definitely loved it!
The family desert competitions evolved. Nyle designed the 5-yard game. Once you missed your target you were out, but if you hit it, you would move back five yards and shoot again. Whoever got the furthest, won the game. This was one of the games that Rob often lost and Carol thinks his siblings beat him because they just tried harder! Rob would soon learn, though, how valuable it was to practice and apply oneself.
Rob continued desert plinking through his teenage years, but became very involved in other activities. Rob wasn’t an academic star, but he loved the after-school activities of basketball and track. He was an athlete, for sure, tall, lean, fit and muscular, but he never dreamed he would become a professional pistol shooter. Rob also developed an interest in motorcycles, which continues to this day. His mom never let him own a bike while living under her roof, so when Rob moved out after graduation, he bought his first street bike.
After high school, Rob got a job with the Arizona Republic, the leading newspaper in the Phoenix metropolitan area. He worked in the computer room as a lowly operator. This was at a time when a room full of mainframes had less computing power than your home PC does now. He loved the job though, especially when things went wrong, as he loved the challenge of time deadlines and the pressure of being ‘under the gun.’ He was able to work the second and third shifts, which allowed him to practice in the daylight hours.
Rob quit his newspaper job in 1987 to start his firearms training business. With this and the support he was receiving from sponsors, he was able to make ends meet. Thankfully, in 1989, Rob was offered a major contract with Springfield Armory that enabled him to become a full-time, professional shooter. He has been practicing, competing, traveling the world and conducting live-fire demonstrations for sponsors ever since! He’s one of a select group of people who get to do what they love for a living (thanks to his employer and sponsors).