My Father, Bert Fisher, passed away on August 15th 2013. His passing has set my mind in motion remembering all that his life on this earth meant to me.
I know everyone says this... but I will say it anyway! My Father was a Great Man! And like most great men, it is not until they are gone that their greatness is finally measured and acknowledged. Growing up in our home I have always known that he was someone special, even though I have not always been man (or boy) enough to say it out loud. I look back now with profound gratitude for all that he did for me growing up and the example he continued to set on into my adult life.
Greatness is measured in different ways by different people, but in the economy of eternity where God is judge of all, greatness is not simply What we do but How we do it. And my dear Father did it Right!
[adapted and expanded from my remarks at Dad's funeral]
My father was a teacher. He did not teach in a school or make his profession teaching. If someone had asked him I doubt he would have called himself a teacher, but every significant life lesson that I have learned came to me through the faithful example of my loving Father.
As a boy, Dad taught me how to fish! He showed me how to tie on a lure, how to hold the rod and turn the reel. He showed me how to cast the line and where I could have the best prospects at catching fish. He went fishing often in those days and I remember he never said 'no' when I wanted to go with him. After a little practice I actually caught a few fish, and thus began a lifelong love of fishing and the outdoors. My father taught me how to fish, but it was not really about fishing...
Years later around the time I graduated high school I went to work with my father at the Title Company where he had been employed for some time. As with so many times before my Father was again my teacher. I had to learn all the intricacies of property title searches. How to examine adjoining boundary lines for consistency and how to translate old world units of measurement (Rods, Links, Chains, etc.). After a while I began to become somewhat proficient and became a part of the group of men who worked in the basement of the county building searching title records for the various Title Companies around town. At some point early on the other men came up with a nickname for me; "The Clone". They got a great deal of pleasure out of this supposing, as they did, that it was somehow a sleight to me or to my father. Dad seemed to take it in stride as he joked back at them, as for me I quietly wore it as a badge of honor. You see, these men respected my father because he had always shown them respect and had an honest, straightforward approach to dealing with any situation. If they thought I was a "Clone" of my dad... that was fine by me! And as with the fishing, It really was not about searching property titles...
Learning to fish and how to search county records were valuable skills, each in it's own way. But that was not really what I was learning from my father. When we went fishing together we were in another world. A world where all that mattered was being together, Father and Son. I learned about the love he had for me by how he showed it in this and so many other ways. When he taught me about the working world he showed me by example that honesty and honor are not just words. I learned by watching him how treating others with respect lifts you both and forms friendships that endure.
I learned 'how' to live from my Dad, but of much more value to me and to my family now was understanding from his example the 'Why' of it all. In the mathematics of marriage and family I saw the lasting worth of bonds made strong by consistent love and kindness.
It seems almost redundant after all this to say that He was a man of great faith. Dad's love for God and His son Jesus Christ can be felt and heard through all of the things he did for us as children and how he cared for our dear Mother through decades of debilitating disease and pain. In like fashion to my lessons about life, He showed me about Faith. He did not need to 'Instruct' me in the Christian Faith (though he certainly did!), simply growing up in his shadow gave it to me point by point, taught by actions and attitudes. While we learned and practiced according to our LDS faith, I was taught to respect and honor the beliefs of others. As we traveled the world (Dad was a career officer in the US Air Force) we visited the sacred places of many other religions and we were taught to reverence these places as we did our own.
As I have let my mind travel back across the years of my life in these recent weeks bringing into better focus the role of my father in shaping who I am today, I cannot help but feel a deep gratitude for his love and example in my life. Dad did not (and could not) know the challenges that I would face as I traveled through life, but he knew the foundation upon which I could stand, and the tools I would need to conquer them and did all he could to show them to me.
Thanks Dad... for Everything! (and say Hi to Mom for Me!)
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