His father was killed in an accident at the train yard when he was 2. He always worried that he was doing a good job as a father, since he never had a role model.
In high school in Chicago he was one of the tallest kids in school, but he wanted to join ROTC instead of the basketball team. He thought he looked funny in shorts. He ended up becoming the highest ranking cadet in the school, and was offered a commision in the infantry right out of high school in 1943.
After hearing that infantry L.T.'s life expectancy was measured in minutes he opted to join the Army Air Corps. He was just a lowly corporal, but he stayed alive. Flew in B-25's as a radioman, and served as the control tower operator at a little airfield in Southern California.
After the war he married his high school sweetheart and started saving his money. He moved the family from Chicago in 1953 to a place close to that little airfield, because he loved the mountains and the ocean and the great weather.
His sweetheart died in 1984. He was lost for a while, then he created something for a publishing company as a favor to the President. The thing he invented sold 1 million copies in the first year.
At the age of 59 he was offered his own company to manufacture these things. Within 2 years the publishing company made him the CEO of an even bigger company.
He married his bosses secretary, retired comfortably and bought himself his dream house on a lake. He always enjoyed fishing, and never stopped working with his hands. He was the neighbor everybody came to to ask how things are done.
I never hesitated calling him when I was building something or fixing something or just worried about something.
He was almost 80. He was a great role model. He was a great Dad. I will miss him more than words can express.
