It is better that someone else tell you about my Dad because anything I or my siblings might say could be dismissed as the ramblings of adoring children.
He has had a profound influence over not only his children's lives - but also the lives of hundreds of other kids. Dad was one of Kentucky's finest music educators and many folks noticed. One of his ex-students, Sarah Bennett-Booker, wrote a great news paper article about him some years back. It appeared in the LaRue County Herald-News.
... "He took 85 to 100 energetic, creative, mischievous kids from sixth to twelfth grade -- some talented and some with less than no talent, many of us with special problems, all of us with individual needs--and taught us to read music, play instruments, believe in ourselves and work as a team. He taught us to win with grace, compete with confidence and lose without losing our self-respect.
If he had favorites, we never knew it. If he got tired of dragging a hundred kids around after him, he never let us know. If it broke, he fixed it. If you lost it, he found it. If you forgot it, he worked it out. If you made a mistake, he made you feel as if you had been wrong in the most uniquely brilliant way. If you misbehaved, he gave you "the look. "
"The look" involved his putting his hands on his hips and looking straight at you with a bemused, slightly pained expression which said, "How can someone as smart as you are have done that? How could someone I care for so deeply disappoint me in this way?" It made you want to hide under your music stand for life.
As soon as it came, it was over. He never held grudges, nagged or quit trusting us. He handled all problems "in-house." Correction was private. Praise was lavish and public...."
Happy Father's Day, Dad - I love you very much.
