Dad was born in Highland Park, Illinois on August 25, 1940 and grew up in Dundee and Elgin, Illinois. He played the cornet in his high school band and achieved the rank of Eagle Scout when he was 15. He attended Michigan State University, received his BA from Oakland University, and earned his Master’s Degree at Wayne State University in Detroit. Dad worked as a medic in the US Army, was an operating room technician, a probation officer, a parole officer, a teacher, and a social worker. His greatest love was working for Child Protective Services for many years helping children who were abused or neglected.
My father met my mother in 1962 on a train of all places. It was love at first sight. My father was in the Army at the time, traveling from Fort Benning, Georgia to Chicago on his way to Tacoma, Washington where he would be stationed at Madigan General Hospital. My mother was returning from a vacation in Florida. She was only 17, he was 22. He told his soldier friends on the train that he had just met the girl he was going to marry! They said their good-byes when the train reached Chicago and, less than 48 hours after meeting, my dad sent my mother a letter expressing his feelings. They became engaged a few months later and set a wedding date for December 1963. The wedding almost didn’t happen because President Kennedy was assassinated about 10 days before the wedding and all leaves were cancelled for all military personnel. Because Dad was stationed in Germany at the time, his unit was prepped for war. As fate would have it, however, the “red alert” was changed to yellow and my Dad was allowed to travel back to the US for the wedding. My parents married and took the first plane back to Germany where they lived for the next two years.
Dad was married to my mother Barbara for 45 years, 5 months and 18 days. They had three children and were blessed with seven grandchildren. They loved each other so much! I have never seen such unconditional love like I saw in my parents.
His family was Dad’s first love. He always made sure we had what we needed (and wanted), regardless if he could afford to give it to us. He loved watching college football, and in 2005 we went to the Rose Bowl to see the Michigan Wolverines play Texas. I have never seen so much joy in my Dad’s eyes as he rooted for his team. That is a day I will never forget.
Dad loved traveling and spent many hours pouring over tour books planning trips for him and my Mom. He loved to go “garage sailing” every Saturday even though he wasn’t able to get out of the car. He would send my Mom to find any treasures and haggle about prices, barking orders or cheering her on from the car. Dad was passionate about sending in Publisher’s Clearing House prize entries, hoping to “win the big one” and put us all on Easy Street. He loved to take pictures and was just learning about digital photography with the new camera my mom bought him for his last birthday.
Dad was the hardest working man I have ever met in my life! You had to respect my dad; he worked his entire life to make sure his family was taken care of, even working in an orange grove when times were tough. When he finally retired in March after working over 26 years with the County of Riverside Department of Social Services, he was ill and would only have two months of “rest” before he died. There is something wrong with that. Everything about him – his stature, his style, his convictions, – conveyed enduring strength, and no one who observed his struggle in those final days could doubt that strength was real.
My father is my hero, and I am having a really hard time dealing with his death. I want to cry all the time, but I have to be strong for my mom...I love her more than she will ever know. If there is one thing I can say about my Dad, it's WOW! What a Dad! Awesome in every way, when he walked into a room, you knew it. I will never forget his laugh, and his smile, I will never forget when he helped me at Urgent Care when my heart started failing, he was there for me, told me how much he loved me, hugged me and told me to “hang in there” and that I would be all right. God I love my Dad.