the dad

My dad turns 85 years old this month. Let me tell you just a little about this Exceptional Person.

As a professor at a teachers college, he was often home around the same time I got home from elementary school and we would have tea parties and play cards together. He made time to have fun with my brother and me then he would finish his work and prep for the next day’s classes later in the evening. I grew up going to sleep by the tap-tap-tap of the typewriter from his den across the hall.

Drawing cartoons since he was a kid, he frequently gave the family hand-drawn birthday and holiday cards. In looking through mementos from childhood, Mom had saved some of the fun little quiz books Dad made for my brother and me—I loved those!

And as I grew older, I started to realize that not all dads were like mine …

Sure, at home, I saw the worrier and in-a-funk side of him too. But the kindness and humoUr which he is loved for by friends were the dominant characteristics he shared as a dad. Once when I was helping to shovel snow from the driveway, he came outside to see me removing snow from the top of the car with the metal shovel. He quickly got me to stop but he did not yell at me or show me his frustration—he knew I was just trying to help.

During elementary school, I loved when Dad took me to the college basketball games, but I learned not to sit beside him. A former player and coach, Dad would lose his mild manners and yell at the referees. We still laugh at my embarrassment when I heard him yell “FINK! FINK!” at a ref—I knew what that word meant but only learned later that the referee’s last name actually was Finck.

If Dad and I had a car ride together, we could be comfortably silent. When I was at odds with my mother, I know it couldn’t have been easy for him to be between his wife and daughter. As an adult, I always felt he was there for me and loved me, even after I made an unpopular decision.

I have met many people who told me Dad was their favoUrite teacher. A former student created a university bursary to honoUr him. He stayed in contact with many of his school and university classmates.

And Dad never stopped drawing cartoons. He draws a cartoon daily on his iPad and posts it to social media. At 85, he’s still an inspiration to his many friends and family. Happy Birthday, Dad!