Herman School of Business
Happy Fathers Day Poppy...
With the death this week of Jim McKay a swirl of memories came back to me. McKay is best remembered for the Wide World of Sports and for his incredible commentary during the Olympic’s crisis when helpless athletes were killed by a cowardly group of people.
I once flew first class on one of my many free “upgrades” as a result of flying several hundred times a year. Sitting across from me on the flight home to Baltimore was a small well dressed man and his beautiful wife. It was Mr. McKay and his wife also heading home to Baltimore, as he lived just North of the city in the rolling countryside where horse farms are plentiful. Mrs. McKay was attentive to her husband and they sat quietly, each reading their own book, tucked under a shared blanket. I said hello to him as we prepared to unboard and shook his hand to thank him for so many great shows he had done. Undoubtedly he had heard that thousands of times, but he looked at me and nodded his head as if it was the first time.
Wide World of Sports was a connecting point for a love triangle in my life that continues to this day. Sports, my Dad and me. My Father took me to Memorial Stadium to watch the Orioles. He took me to New York’s Yankee Stadium to see the Baltimore Colts beat the Giants in the Greatest Game ever Played in 1958, when I was just nine years old. And my Father watched sports on television with me whenever he could…and many times we stared at Jim McKay on the tube telling us about some obscure sport somewhere in the world and we chatted about the talent and more importantly, the effort it took, for that athlete to accomplish what they were doing.
And so my first Happy Fathers Day is to Jim McKay and his wonderful wife and family in their time of grief for losing Jim this week. They know how blessed they were to have him.
My Father left the earth twenty-five years ago. I get teary-eyed in less than twenty-five seconds when I think about him. The years have taken nothing away from the power of my love for my Father. He was a quiet, powerful man who lived his life as a role model for loving your children and taking care of your family at the sacrifice of your own wants. We called him Poppy because he became a great Grandfather when Karen and Pam came along…and then many more grandchildren. Poppy worked tirelessly for everyone else. I never heard my Father complain about the hours he had to put in to give his family what he thought was needed…a safe home, food, clothing and most important to him…an education for his children. He lived to give his kids a better life than he had by believing that education would unlock opportunity to provide more for the next generation. And he was right. The most wonderful tribute to Poppy is that the six children he raised have all taught our offspring that all good things in their lives is a result of the efforts of Poppy and Nanny, who worked to teach us so much. There are children in our family who never met Poppy but they can tell you countless stories about him. Telling the stories about Poppy over and over again has kept him alive well beyond his “physical” life.
This weekend my children will honor me with a small token and a heavy dose of how much they love me. They will also know that my skills as a Father came from the greatest teacher of those skills. To not do my best for my kids would dishonor the greatest man I ever knew…Happy Father’s Day Poppy!
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