Robert Davolt [Edit]

Robert Davolt (1958-2005) was an American leatherman.

Life

Davolt held the title of Mr. Wisconsin Leather/Levi Daddy 1994, and the title of San Francisco Leather Daddy XIX.

He was an International Mr. Leather contestant in 1995.

In 1999 under his leadership the San Francisco Leather Pride Contingent was formed; it marches in the San Francisco Pride Parade.

He was the last editor and publisher of Drummer before it ended in 1999 and before its relaunch in 2019. He was also the executive producer of the International Mr. Drummer contest for some years.

After Drummer temporarily stopped publishing in 1999 Davolt wrote for many other publications, edited the gay male bondage magazine Bound & Gagged for several issues, and wrote a column on Leatherpage.com.

In 2003 his book Painfully Obvious: An Irreverent & Unauthorized Manual for Leather/SM was published by Daedalus Publishing Company; it is a collection of forty essays originally written for Leatherpage.com by Davolt. It was nominated for the 2005 Stonewall Book Award given by the American Library Association.

Davolt also served on the Board of Directors of the Leather Archives & Museum.

He died of melanoma.

Papers

In 2009, the Leather Archives & Museum acquired a 25-box collection of Davolt’s papers.

Honors

In 2017, the art installation known as the San Francisco South of Market Leather History Alley was installed; in it Davolt (among others) is honored with a bronze bootprint displaying his name and a short statement about him.