Most important lessons came from Dad

My father, Martin, who would have been 100 this year, died on Fathers' Day 19 years ago. Every year since then, this day reminds me that all the important lessons in my life came from this first-generation American with only one year of high school.

By example, he taught responsibility, honesty, fidelity, courtesy, generosity, and tolerance. A big, strong man with a loud voice befitting his role as an assistant foreman in a brass foundry, he never bullied anyone and was quick to laugh at his own occasional folly.

One story reveals so much about him. For years after Mom and he moved from their tiny house in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago to a new bungalow on the city's Southwest side, one of Dad's neighbors kept calling him "Mike." One day I asked Martin why he didn't set his neighbor straight.

Dad said, "Mike's a perfectly good name. Besides, I wouldn't want to embarrass him, especially after all this time."

Remembering him every Father's Day, my love and appreciation deepens and I'm more grateful that he was my Father. Every year I also regret not having spent more time with him and been a better learner. Bob Foys Inverness