Today would have been my father’s 100th birthday. He was born on the family farm in Carroll County, Ind., on March 21, 1910, the eighth of 10 children. He died on Nov. 24, 1997 at the age of 87.
He was probably about 30 years old when this photo was shot on the east side of the courthouse square in Delphi, Ind., where he lived all of his adult life. Dad was an independent insurance agent, a Realtor, a two-term member and former president of the Delphi-Deer Creek School Board at a time when the current high school was designed and built. He enjoyed a good round of golf and was a Chicago White Sox fan.
Dad’s lifespan included the explosion of technology from aviation to space travel, from rural electrification to the Internet, the fall of the Czar in Russia through the collapse of the Soviet Union, two World Wars, the Great Depression, the sinking of the RMS Titanic and the discovery of its wreck site.
He was also a lifelong Democrat. His father, who was a township trustee and county treasurer was a Democrat. I have the receipt from grandpa’s donation to the campaign of William Jennings Bryan in 1908.
But I am confident that my dad and his dad would be horrified to see how their party has taken a sharp turn to the left and become the enemy of free enterprise and liberty.
Happy Birthday, Dad. I’m glad you didn’t live to see this day.
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