"Daddy's Little Girl" - Dr. Hook, 1995

For a long time, I've thought about writing a blog post about my father. Today's a good day to do so, as it would have been his 88th birthday.

My father Glenn died in 1987 of emphysema and congestive heart failure...from too many Camels over many, many years. I miss him every single day. I was always a daddy's girl and proud of it.

So much of the person I am today is because of him. He's the reason that I'm a "geek girl". It's why I'm so passionate about music. It's why I'm, as they say in the UK, a "petrol head". It's why I love science and history. And it's why I ended up in the oil business (much as I fought it for a long time).

Only once in my life do I remember my father ever saying that there was something I couldn't do because I was a girl. That support had a profound effect on me.

I don't have a scanned photo of him. So what's posted at the top of this page is a favorite photo of Daddy when he was in the US Army Air Corps around the end of World War II -- or, to be more specific, it's a digital photo of that original framed photo. It's not great but hopefully better than nothing. (You can click on the image itself to see a larger version.)

I have two major regrets about his life. One is that my father died before the personal computer age. He would have had a terrific time using the internet and e-mail communications! And the other is that he and John never met. They would have been such great friends.

RIP, Daddy! I hope you'd be proud of how my life has turned out the past 21 years, since you died.

Janet