As I write this tribute
about my father just over seven months after his passing, he remains greatly
missed, especially on holidays and special days this year such as his birthday
and Father’s Day, the first year without him.
Serious, low-key, and physically
active with a good sense of humor, Dad was always interested in things around
him, being outdoors to enjoy the weather, and participating in good
conversations on current national and international events. I always think of
Dad with a nice smile on his face. He was the type who would not want to dwell
on negatives, but be positive, get involved in new things or projects, and move
forward.
Here are some things about
Dad that I would like to share with you:
· While I was a first grader in a Madison,
Wisconsin elementary school, Dad attended the parents’ event at my school to
meet with my first grade teacher to see how I was doing. The day following this
event, my teacher came to me -- a serious and quiet six-year-old who got her
hearing aids the year before -- and said “What a handsome man your father is.”
A complete surprise, this was not what I expected to hear from my teacher in
class. As I was learning speech and language at that time, it was a while
before I knew what “handsome” meant. My sister Carol and I went to different
elementary schools in Madison at that time, so Mom went to Carol’s school and
Dad went to mine for the parents’ events. Dad often served as spokesperson
before the school board for the parents of deaf children attending the Madison
schools.
· As my tutor all through elementary school, Dad
was the one who helped me with my school work. As he often had to be in his
laboratory on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus to check on scientific
research on weekends, he sometimes took me along to his laboratory. While Dad
checked on his research in the lab or work in his office, I was at a nearby lab
or office table doing my homework or practicing my speech. Today, I still
remember the unique smells of a scientific laboratory and the scientific
apparatus that was in his laboratory. Dad worked for over thirty years as a
biochemist (and later biochemist in charge) in the same laboratory,
specializing in agriculture with emphasis on wheat, oats, barley and malt.
· Dad was a hero, too. Even though the public
swimming pool we went to in Madison had two lifeguards, Dad always insisted
that he be on the lookout whenever Carol or I were swimming in the pool. After
my sister took a dive way too close to the diving board and got hurt, Dad was
the first to reach her and pulled my sister out of the pool. She had to be
taken to the emergency room for stitches on her chin.
· A great reader who always had books to read,
Dad was a regular user of the nearby public library and influenced me in my
career path as a librarian. In his last year, Dad enjoyed reading e-books from
his Kindle.
· As history has been my favorite, Dad was the
one who encouraged me to take advantage to learn more of history. He often said
that his teacher at the Madison Elementary School in South Bend, Indiana would
have been proud of him. Wherever you are, on a trip or at home, one has to go
out, take a walking tour to learn more of its geography and its history, read a
history book of your locale, and go to museums and national parks. Throughout
his long life and the various places he lived in England, Canada, and the
United States, Dad followed his teacher’s advice.
· Dad and Mom planned our annual trips every
summer while my sister and I were growing up. Special places in the U.S., Canada,
England, Scotland, Iceland, and Europe. I remember Dad enjoying the views of the
Gettysburg National Park (the cicadas sure were active that summer!), the
Canadian Rockies in British Columbia, the Black Hills of South Dakota, and the
North Sea coast of his mother’s birthplace at Saltburn-by-the Sea, England. Dad
always had a good time with Mom’s family in Canada at Arborg, Riverton, and
Gimli, including the recent family reunions at Arborg and Invermere. Dad’s
favorite place of all was Pike’s Peak which he saw daily from his own home in
Colorado Springs, Colorado.
· As nearly everyone in our family
knows, Dad was always a great walker. During our visits to Laclede Groves near
St. Louis, my husband Tom and Dad regularly took one-mile walks on its grounds.
For a number of years in Wisconsin and Colorado, he also jogged. He made some great
friends with his jogging team while jogging on the University of
Wisconsin-Madison athletic fields near Lake Mendota. Among his co-joggers was a
military historian who was interested about Dad’s World War II experiences in
England and Canada. Only 19 years old, Dad was the master baker in charge of a
large bakery in northern England when WWII broke out in Europe. During the war,
Dad was a baking instructor for the RCAF Baking School at Guelph and served as
a master baker in various RCAF bases in Canada and Iceland. Couple years ago,
Dad spoke about his assignment as the sole baker at a remote RCAF base in New
Brunswick. He had quite a tale to tell in how he got to this remote base where
a group of airmen stationed there was in need of a baker!
· During WWII and in college, Dad adopted his
father’s middle name of Eugene. His mother was upset that Dad wasn’t using his
given name of Neville, so he then went back to being called “Neville” again.
Dad’s mother mentioned that his given name had a very special meaning for both
her and Dad’s father. In researching his family history more since his passing,
it was learned that Dad has the Neville of Durham ancestry. To my surprise,
both of Dad’s parents have the “fils Maldred” ancestry of Northumberland and
Scotland, tracing back to some of the same ancestors as the Sigvaldason
Family!
· Early this year, while visiting Mom at Webster
Groves, Missouri, Mom and I were looking at a photograph taken at my parent’s
50th wedding anniversary in Colorado Springs. It has a special
meaning since Dad’s passing. This photo of the 50th Anniversary
Quilt (my sister sewed this quilt together) shows my parents and Aunt Margaret
looking at the quilt. Who would have thought at the time that Dad and Aunt
Margaret would leave us in the same year?
· The last time I saw Dad was for my parents’ 63rd
wedding anniversary, nearly three months before he died. At the age of 92 and in frail health, Dad was
still alert and so interested in the Sigvaldason Family recipes. He wanted to
see some of the recipes and to know what my next steps are with regard to this
project. As a former master baker, Dad enjoyed going to bakeries and having
good food. Like Mom, Dad collected
special recipes over the years such as his recipes from England. When he saw
Aunt Margaret’s hilarious “Best Christmas Fruit Cake” recipe, Dad had a great
laugh.
Margaret Prentice Hecker,
July 20, 2013
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