The date on this picture is 1918
We think that this was taken while Daddy was in high school.
Daddy's high school graduation picture.
WWII picture taken sometime between 1942 and 1944.
Mom and Daddy in the late 1950's before they came to Indiana.
Me and Daddy in Bluffton in April, 1963.
Daddy and my sister, Dori on her wedding day in Nov. 1965
My brother Dan and Daddy in the mid 70's. Note that they both have pocket protectors!! :-)
Here he is with grandson, Scott; and granddaughters Carol and Beth circa 1978 or 79.
My Wedding (1981)
The entire family in 1981...we've added a few members since then!
This is a common shot of dad while in Canada.
Daddy and his youngest grandchildren. Kristin
Meredith
Larissa
Ethan
Daddy with his first great-grandson, Seth. (July 1992)
Second great-grandson, Gage, with his mom, Beth and his Dad, Dan.
Mom and Daddy in 1997.
And the last family picture taken in Jan 1997.10 years ago on Aug. 26, after a 3 1/2 week battle with an unknown enemy, my 82 year old daddy went home to be with Jesus. One decade ago. Sometimes it seems like he's been gone only a little bit. But other days, it feels like a very long time. My dad was a loving husband, a wonderful father and a great grandpa. He was older when I was born, almost 43. I came along 14 years after my sister and 18 years after my brother. So, I had a different dad than my siblings did. When my brother was very small; daddy went off to war. Shortly after he returned, my sister was born. But by the time I came along, he was only 22 years from retirement. I had a very different upbringing from my siblings.
My dad was very active in the Boy Scouts of America all his life. He was an Eagle Scout and grew up to be a Boy Scout leader and an Explorer Post leader. The week before he went into the hospital in 1999, he had just returned from his annual wilderness canoe trip to Canada with the Explorers. He took my oldest daughter white water rafting when he was 78 or 79. (He fell out, we have a video to prove it...) He was very active until the day he got sick.
Daddy went to all my dance recitals. (He hated them.) He went to all my choir performances. (He hated them.) He went to all of my band competitions, near and far (and I believe that even though he didn't care for music much, he did enjoy those band competitions.) Daddy picked up a box turtle for me in the early 70's down in Arkansas and brought it home in a box. He had set it down and told me he had a surprise for me in the living room. I found the empty box and was quite confused. The turtle had escaped which earned him his name, Snooper. Dad drilled a hole in his shell and tied a long string to him so we could find him when he went snooping. He lived a long life and was one of my favorite of daddy's trip presents.
My dad didn't know a stranger. We thought he knew everyone in town. He took my oldest kids to McDonalds for breakfast after he retired. He loved doing that. He also took them to the State Park to feed the geese. My younger two children got to do some special things with Grandpa too, but they don't remember them very much any more. When my dad retired for the second time he became a child care expert. We had moved to Greentown by then and we received many articles cut out of magazines and the newspaper in the mail, giving us advice on every thing that he thought we needed to know. It was so funny.
My dad was an engineer but I didn't know that until I went to work at Delphi for 15 electrical engineers after he died. That's when I learned that drawing pictures on napkins to make a point and drawing pictures instead of using words to get his point across was an "engineering thing". Once when the grass was a bit too long, I got a sticky-note with a drawing of the dog's tail sticking out of the tall grass and the caption said, "Where's Nutmeg?" 'Nuff said. The last conversation that I had with him was about his watch. He always wore it on his left wrist with the face on the inside of his arm. I asked him why and he picked up his coffee cup and said, "I work on the theory that if someone asks me what time it is, I'll pour my coffee in his lap instead of mine!" while demonstrating that very thing. I will never forget that last night we had before he got sick. He looked so good and the kids and I had such a good time with him. I'm so thankful to the Lord that we had that short visit to look back on after he died.
Thanks for coming this far with me on my journey to honor my daddy. I miss him so much. I love you, Daddy.
If you've gotten this far, you have to be family.
God bless you all, and hug your loved ones tight.
My dad was very active in the Boy Scouts of America all his life. He was an Eagle Scout and grew up to be a Boy Scout leader and an Explorer Post leader. The week before he went into the hospital in 1999, he had just returned from his annual wilderness canoe trip to Canada with the Explorers. He took my oldest daughter white water rafting when he was 78 or 79. (He fell out, we have a video to prove it...) He was very active until the day he got sick.
Daddy went to all my dance recitals. (He hated them.) He went to all my choir performances. (He hated them.) He went to all of my band competitions, near and far (and I believe that even though he didn't care for music much, he did enjoy those band competitions.) Daddy picked up a box turtle for me in the early 70's down in Arkansas and brought it home in a box. He had set it down and told me he had a surprise for me in the living room. I found the empty box and was quite confused. The turtle had escaped which earned him his name, Snooper. Dad drilled a hole in his shell and tied a long string to him so we could find him when he went snooping. He lived a long life and was one of my favorite of daddy's trip presents.
My dad didn't know a stranger. We thought he knew everyone in town. He took my oldest kids to McDonalds for breakfast after he retired. He loved doing that. He also took them to the State Park to feed the geese. My younger two children got to do some special things with Grandpa too, but they don't remember them very much any more. When my dad retired for the second time he became a child care expert. We had moved to Greentown by then and we received many articles cut out of magazines and the newspaper in the mail, giving us advice on every thing that he thought we needed to know. It was so funny.
My dad was an engineer but I didn't know that until I went to work at Delphi for 15 electrical engineers after he died. That's when I learned that drawing pictures on napkins to make a point and drawing pictures instead of using words to get his point across was an "engineering thing". Once when the grass was a bit too long, I got a sticky-note with a drawing of the dog's tail sticking out of the tall grass and the caption said, "Where's Nutmeg?" 'Nuff said. The last conversation that I had with him was about his watch. He always wore it on his left wrist with the face on the inside of his arm. I asked him why and he picked up his coffee cup and said, "I work on the theory that if someone asks me what time it is, I'll pour my coffee in his lap instead of mine!" while demonstrating that very thing. I will never forget that last night we had before he got sick. He looked so good and the kids and I had such a good time with him. I'm so thankful to the Lord that we had that short visit to look back on after he died.
Thanks for coming this far with me on my journey to honor my daddy. I miss him so much. I love you, Daddy.
If you've gotten this far, you have to be family.
God bless you all, and hug your loved ones tight.
