This was my Dad sometime between 1972 and 1978.
He was married to my mother, but my brother and I hadn't come along yet. He'd completed his Master's degree in Counseling Social Work, and was either directing a group home for mentally handi-capable men with my mother or doing another counseling job. I'm not sure actually. He was a hippy to the core, and made sure that his actions matched his ideals as much as possible. He was (and continues to be) an avid fisherman and generally loved to be outdoors. He liked to run for exercise, but had to quit sometime during this exact period because of sciatic nerve issues.
Before he went to graduate school, he had been a real hippy. He was handpicked from a crowd to be an usher for the musical Hair, and might have been able to pass for a Wookie. He dug pools in the summertime to pay for school and lived at home with his parents all through undergrad to save money. He didn't get along with his parents at the time, but I'm pretty sure that was an adolescent/generational thing. It passed with time.
He was always soft spoken, but quietly opinionated. He was a very active member of whichever community he was in, and eventually he worked as a volunteer fire fighter, an ambulance driver, a town councilman, and a church elder all while holding a full time job as a social worker. He was (and is) pretty amazing.
These are the pieces of my father's past that I have cobbled together to create this picture of who I think he was back when these pictures were taken. My mom likes to say that the hippy disappeared when dad cut his hair, but I know it is still in there. Now he is still working as a social worker, just doing geriatrics. He isn't as active in his community as before, but he is always a leader in whatever position he holds. He still exercises every morning, just like he has since he was 16 years old. He isn't married to my mom either, but that is really a good thing. They are much better with the people they are currently married to anyway. Some stories from my father's past are really difficult to comprehend with the man that I know now, but I know there are plenty of people who could say the same about me. He is a kind-hearted, sweet, and intelligent man who gifted me with a talent for foreign languages and a love of other cultures.
We love you Poppy.
