It is with a heavy heart and a tear stained face that I.....
that I tell you of my Father's passing. The man that first put a recurve in my hand and taught me to shoot it. The man who first took me hunting and taught me to love it. The man that taught me to fish and throw and hit a baseball. The man that blistered my backside when I did something wrong. The man that taught me how to be one died this morning from complications of pneumonia, that his body weakened by Parkinson's Disease was too weak to fight. He was 77 years old; a Navy veteran of the Korean War; Retired from Ford Motor Company at 67 after over 30 years of faithful service. He was a hunter, archer, golfer, and outdoorsman. He could serve a bowstring so well you had to use a magnifying glass to see the wrap. Taught me to dip and crest and fletch arrows and he made some pretty ones himself. Taught me how to shoot bows, rifles, shotguns and pistols by the time I was 16 I was a dead shot with them all. Beat addictions to both alcohol and cigarettes in his 50s cold turkey. Just one day said, "I am not going to do that ever again." and didn't. The finest example of will power I have ever witnessed. Was my father perfect? Of coarse not; but he was the only father I had and a good one. When I was 17 I got drunk at a party and couldn't drive home. I called him and told him the situation. He didn't yell, he didn't criticize me he just said, "Where are you? I'll be there in 20 minutes. I appreciate that while you did the stupid thing in drinking too much; you were smart enough to call for a ride." And he didn't say anything else about it again I never repeated the incident. He will be missed most grievously.
