06/16/2024
My dad passed away 40 years ago, a good long life believing in God and good works. He was born in 1897, in Evanston, Illinois, to middle class parents. In his life he left Northwestern University to briefly become a soldier in WW I (front line medical hospital orderly), he raised chickens for a while, he bought a newspaper in Ohio but was run out of town by the K*K for allowing a synagogue and a Catholic Church to advertise, he worked in advertising in NY City for many years, then edited a magazine for the insurance industry until he retired in 1970, my first year in Highschool. Alzheimer's took him in 1984.
He was a good man who cared about the world and was a dedicated conservationist. When he was about 11 he saw Theodore Roosevelt give a speech and he used to tell me a quote that Roosevelt used. "Conservation is a great moral issue for it involves the patriotic duty to ensure the safety and continuation of the nation."
I wouldn't be the person I am if it wasn't for him, I followed him in several ways. I was a medic in the army that worked with a forward Mobile hospital unit, but I never saw combat or combat wounded soldiers like he did.
Mustard gas and the horrific wounds brought from the heavy artillery and machine guns had a huge impact on him. At one point while he was walking back to the hospital from the local town his appendix burst, an ambulance was just driving by when it happened, then they picked them up and got them in surgery. He survived that at a time when very few did, and I wouldn't be here otherwise. I became a peace activist because he described so intensely how much people suffered and died. I became a dedicated conservationist, after my boy scout years and am to this day.
Thanks Dad.
Below is a 102 year old painting my uncle did of my father in his World War I uniform.
