Joe Gunn, 55, motorcycle rider and shop owner

Joe Gunn started riding motorcycles when he was 6. At 19, he operated his own shop — No. 1 Cycle Supply in Augusta, near his hometown of Keysville.

“The man could break down a bike and put it together with his eyes closed,” said his daughter Heather Joanne Gunn Pearson of Augusta. “He knew a bike like the back of his hand.”

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Joe Gunn of Dallas started riding motorcycles when he was 6 years old. He earned undergraduate degrees in marketing and sales and two MBAs from Kennesaw State University.

He also worked numerous jobs either selling or repairing cars, and he enjoyed collecting guns and target-shooting.

“We have 25 guns in a safe here,” said Rebecca Gunn, his wife of 24 years. “All types. All brands.”

Joseph Allen Gunn, 55, of Dallas died June 21 of internal bleeding at Grady Memorial Hospital after he was shot during an attempted robbery in Smyrna.

The funeral is 11 a.m. Friday at First United Methodist Church of Marietta. A graveside service will be 4 p.m. Saturday at Keysville United Methodist Church Cemetery. Jeff Eberhart Funeral Home of Dallas is in charge of arrangements.

Whatever Mr. Gunn made a living at, it almost always involved motors and something mechanical. He sold cars and motorcycles in various sales positions. He repaired them, too, as a certified technician specialist or master mechanic.

From 1986 to 1992, Mr. Gunn lived in Phoenix, where he was a program manager with the Motorcycle Mechanics Institute. He and his wife moved to Atlanta in the early 1990s, where he worked as a service writer for a now-defunct Volkswagen dealership in Marietta. He also ran Gunn Consulting Group Inc., a Dallas-based firm that advised small companies on business management.

Mr. Gunn had attended college briefly at Arizona State University in Phoenix, but he got serious about higher education in Atlanta. He earned undergraduate degrees in marketing and sales, and two MBAs — one in marketing and one in operations management — from Kennesaw State University, his wife said.

“To do this in his mid-40s was a lifelong accomplishment,” she said. “He had wanted to get his Ph.D., but it didn’t pan out.”

In 2001, Mr. Gunn became a part-time teacher in Chattahoochee Technical College’s dual enrollment program.

He eventually became a full-time instructor in automotive technology, where he was known for his expertise in motorcycle mechanics.

“The man could break down a bike and put it together with his eyes closed,” his daughter said. “He knew a bike like the back of his hand. He knew his stuff.”

Survivors in addition to his wife and daughter include a son, Casey Joe Gunn of Bonaire; three brothers, Louie F. Gunn Jr. of Augusta, James O. Gunn of Evans, and Delma Gunn of Keysville; six sisters, Mary Gunn Ward of Martinez, Elaine Gunn Richardson of North Augusta, S.C., Lois Gunn Hall of Keysville, Doris Gunn Ermokovich of Augusta, Audrey Gunn Harker of Horscham, Pa., and Judy Gunn Kent of Keysville; and a grandson.