In 2014, founder and Vision of Vets Board President Bruce Roscoe had a vision on a plane ride back from Rhode Island after photographing his best friend of 58 years, Joe Rowe.

Doctors had told Joe he had only six months to live due to complications brought on by exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. Bruce offered to professionally photograph Joe so his family and friends would have something to remember him by when he was gone. Bruce’s idea was to create a nonprofit organization whose mission was to memorialize the stories of U.S combat veterans and share that history with the family and the world. He envisioned using a digital method for bringing photographs of combat veterans to life with the use of Live Portrait technology. Families could now view these after their loved ones had passed.

Bruce quickly gained support for his idea in the local community of Prescott, Arizona, in early 2015. This was no surprise because Prescott and the surrounding towns host the largest number of veterans per capita in Arizona. With a wonderful Veterans Administration (VA) hospital and the large veteran population, he started gathering stories with the help of experts, now his board of directors. In June 2017, the IRS recognized Vision of Vets as an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and Bruce’s vision became a reality. With infrastructure to start receiving tax-deductible donations and federal and foundation grants, Vision of Vets has hit the ground running. Click here to read about us in the Prescott Daily Courier!