Dad told stories of his early life in Wilmington. One which sticks out in my mind is of him walking along the railroad tracks gathering pieces of coal that fell off the railroad cars and taking it home.

I can remember the tears rolling down my father's face as he was about to walk me down the aisle when I was married in 1941.

Dad was so proud of his grandchildren, writing wonderful warm notes to my daughter, Patty, when we were up in Geneva, N.Y., where my husband was stationed during part of World War II. Dad also loved to be at the beach with his grandchildren and to romp on the floor with his only grandson - play checkers with him - discuss and play baseball with him.

Dad lost most of his sight in the last year of his life and how hard it was on him as he was a very proud man.

Though Dad had very little formal education, he made a real success of his life, being an engineer with Traveller’s Insurance Company when he retired. Dad as a young man took books from the library to study - he was a born mathematician, loving to do all kinds of math problems from books up until he was in his 70’s. Working under him at Traveller’s were young college grads who came to him for help. As you can tell, I'm extremely proud of my Dad and wish I had him back as there are hundreds of questions I would like to ask that I was "too busy" or too involved in my own life to ask when he was here. I know that I'll be reunited with him in Heaven some day.