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From:
Justine Fenker
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Tuesday, May 19, 2020
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I adored my dad as daughters do. I never stopped believing he was the smartest person in the world and sought his guidance when I could. I was always so proud of my dad in the Air Force – especially so when he gifted to me his Meritorious Service Medal.
My earliest memory is my dad walking me to kindergarten – I must have been beaming! My brothers would give me grief because my dad would never say no to me, i.e. the Lite Brite. He always took us bowling on his visits and to Bailey’s where we would all slide down the bank to the railroad tracks. One year, he showed up with a beautiful Maltese puppy, who we named Muttley and became our best pet.
My father had an enormous influence on my interests growing up. I still have a shelf of books about astronomy and cosmology that he gave me very early on.
For a week every year, he took us on trips. We went to the beach in Jersey more than once – he never had a plan but it always worked out. We even went to Spain riding standby on a cargo plane from Dover. I remember him helping me see the parade in D.C. on the Bicentennial and watching the laser show. And we always loved the baseball games!
For Christmas and birthdays, he would always send us games, books, and classical music albums. The games were always unwrapped and the grease pencils worn down – oh, how we laughed at that! And when he would visit, we would rush to tear the plastic seal off the vinyl albums so he would think that we had listened to them.
I’ll always be thankful for the time that I called, tearfully, asking his advice because my oldest son, only 7, had just been diagnosed with melanoma. He calmed me down and then instructed me where to send a sample for a better look because he knew what mistake the original lab had made.
I enjoyed visiting my dad in Little Rock where he fed the raccoons and then in Weaverville where he fed the birds. I loved browsing his library and always went home with a few books. He delighted in showing us his Hawthorne tree featured in “HAWS A Guide to Hawthorns” by Ron Lance as the original tree used for the type collection of Hawthorn lancei. He loved his cats and I finally got to meet shy Ciel.
My father was an active philanthropist and his list of charities is long and diverse but first and foremost was the ASPCA – American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
I certainly didn’t learn all that I could have from my dad. But, I hope I learned enough.
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