A Father’s Day Tribute to My Dad & Father’s Everywhere

Father’s Day honors fathers and celebrates the influence father’s make in their children’s lives.

Many countries around the world celebrate the day. Father’s Day became a recognized holiday in the early 20^th century, following the recognition of Mother’s Day – a holiday that was founded by Anna Jarvis in honor of her mother.

The first celebration of Father’s Day was at the YMCA in Spokane, Washington in 1910. Sonora Smart Dodd wanted to honor her father, a Civil war veteran, William Jackson Smart, a single parent who raised his six children. After hearing a sermon about Anna Jarvis’s Mother’s Day in 1909, she told her pastor that Father’s should have a similar holiday honoring them.

Although it did not catch on right away, by the 1930s, Dodd stepped up the process to raise awareness for the holiday on a national level. However, it wasn’t until the mid 1966, when President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day. Six years later, the day was made a permanent national holiday when President Richard signed it into law in 1972.

Growing up and today, I have so many wonderful memories of my Father, Len, and my mother, Kathleen, who are both in their 80s.

My father, a college professor, PhD and author, continues to be a wonderful role model as loving, caring father.

Our education was top priority always. He taught my brothers, sister and I, to always be the best we can be and to pursue our dreams. He instills positive family values and lives by their example.

He and my mother set an amazing legacy of what a loving marriage should be.

Below is a poem I’d like to dedicate to my father and all the men in my family and to father’s everywhere:

What Makes a Dad

God took the strength of a mountain,
The majesty of a tree,
The warmth of a summer sun,
The calm of a quiet sea,
The generous soul of nature,
The comforting arm of night,
The wisdom of the ages,
The power of the eagle’s flight,
The joy of a morning in spring,
The faith of a mustard seed,
The patience of eternity,
The depth of a family need,
Then God combined these qualities,
When there was nothing more to add,
He knew His masterpiece was complete,
And so, He called it … Dad

-Anonymous

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Happy Father’s Day!

 

 

 

 

 

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