Father's Day

When I was in 4th grade we moved. We moved a bunch that year and I ended up attending 4 very different schools.

Somewhere along the way, the multiplication tables eluded me - to the extent I flunked math in my final school of that year.

My dad was an engineer and Air Force navigator and quite adept at things mathematical. He was not happy with my math status - not one bit. So over the summer he took on the challenge of tutoring me on those "times tables."

While I resisted, his quiet patience soon had me reciting the tables to his satisfaction. More than that, I got to know him in a different way. Over the years, I have come to look back on that summer as a very important part of my life. The discipline of sticking to things that seemed hard at the time, the idea that all things were possible with effort, the knowledge that he cared about me - those things I learned from my father that summer all of which carried me forward in life.

In fact, that math work helped me with learning to appreciate statistics and earning a National Science Foundation grant when I was an undergraduate. Math skills helped when I was a ship's navigator. Helped me when I got a Masters in Management. Later on, statistics helped by analyze risks in the corporate legal work I did. It also helps me appreciate the widespread misuse of statistics for exploitive purposes. Some of these things my dad knew about, and I hope that he knew how much that summer of re-direction meant in my life.

Dad during the Korean War  

For you, Dad, on this Father's Day - thanks again.