It’s impossible to summarize my whole life with my dad and the impact he has had on my life.  All the experiences we have shared, all that he has taught me, and all the love and encouragement he has provided me.  I thought though about how as a parent myself now, all the incredible things that he has taught me are the things that I am passing down and teaching my own children, so his legacy will continue as we raise our families with the same values and expectations.

So I will share with you a few of those values and lessons that he taught me.

Work Hard.  Not just to get something for it, but work to move yourself forward in life.  To accomplish your goals.  To help others.  Be proud of the work that you do.  Anyone that knew dad knows he was a hard worker.  I not only witnessed that, but was expected to partake in it as well.  I remember helping around the house, but what I really remember is working with dad to fix up the apartments.  He taught me how to paint of course – you can’t be Neil Lantz’s daughter and not know how to paint.  He was always open to teaching me new skills.  I wasn’t told I was too young to do a task.   He did utilize my smaller size though to work in the areas that no one else could fit into - so I painted a lot of closets.  We spent many a weekend working on apartments.  I remember feeling good about helping out and learning new things and working together as a family.  I also discovered the kind of satisfaction you can get from a job well done.

Education.  Of course this doesn’t come as a surprise to all of you.  He was an educator for 33 years, so we know education was important to him.  But he didn’t just get up every morning and go to work.  He truly believed in education and everything he did and said showed that.  I began learning the importance of education at a very early age.  One vivid memory I have when I was very young was sitting on my dad’s lap reading for the first time.  His actions of supporting reading with me started the foundation.  As I grew up he continued to encourage me and tell me how proud he was of me when I did well in school.  His everyday actions taught me the importance of education.  His motto was always – “education – it’s the one thing they can never take away from you.” 

Enjoy life & Enjoy people.  Dad worked hard and taught us to work hard in everything we do, but when he wasn’t working, he knew how to have a good time.  As many of you know, dad was a lot of fun.  He liked to joke around and tease and often enjoyed being the center of attention.  Being a whole lot more shy compared to my dad, I have always admired his ability to get up in front of people and know what to say.  Part of enjoying life is enjoying and interacting with all the people around you each day.  Dad would talk to EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE we went.  We gave him a hard time about it and at times it was annoying not being able to make a quick trip to the store with him without several conversations with people along the way - but secretly, I enjoyed it.  I can’t tell you how many interesting people we have met and incredible things we have learned about people because he took the time to talk to them and ask questions.  I respect his interest in each person he met and his comfortable ability to talk to everyone.  I will continue to push myself and try to be more like him in that way. 

Get up and Dance.  Maybe not as deep as all the other things I have learned, but it’s an important thing that dad and I shared.  Dad loved listening to 50s music and Elvis.  By listening to Elvis music with him, I developed my own appreciation for Elvis, which I have also passed down to my kids.  Whenever I hear 50s music or Elvis, I immediately see dad with his imaginary microphone belting out the tunes.  If he wasn’t singing, he was making his way to the dance floor.  He loved to dance.  He would always try to get me to dance with him too.  This had its challenges since he would dance even if no one else was on the dance floor.  You can imagine what a person like me would think of that.  He would typically convince me and we would have such a good time dancing and laughing.  One of my favorite times when we danced together was at OU.  He came down to dad’s weekend and we had an amazing time.  Toward the end of the night, we went to a dance bar.  Dad couldn’t resist the urge to dance.  Now dad wasn’t doing the typical stand in one place and rock back and forth dancing that many college students were doing.  He wanted to do real jitterbug, swing type dancing.  As we were dancing, the people around us literally moved back and stood in a circle around us watching us and cheering us on.  I was having so much fun, I didn’t care who was watching us.  Then dad started dancing with some of my friends.  While I was watching, one of the other people there leaned over and asked, “Is that your dad?  He’s really cool!”  I gave him a big smile and said, “yep, he really is.”

Family.  The importance of family and spending time together is a value that I have always cherished.  It wasn’t until I was older that I realized that the great family environment I had was unique.  We worked together, played together, and genuinely enjoyed spending time together.  Now Kirby and I are older and have families of our own, but we still enjoy getting together with our larger family.  I know many people will comment on South Ridge and how important it was to dad.  Yes, he enjoyed working on the house, hunting, and all the activities down there, but that is not why he loved South Ridge.  All of those things revolved around the gathering of family and friends.  South Ridge enables us to gather together and spend true quality time together.  Dad knew that and embraced it and that is why South Ridge was his favorite place to go.

These things are just a fraction of the things that I have gained from my relationship with my dad.  He was an amazing father that I have so much love and respect for.  I will continue to teach my kids all the life values that I have learned from him and hope that when they are older they will feel the same way about me.

I love you and will miss you dad.

Kelly 

When I think about my dad, many special memories come to mind and my heart breaks knowing there won’t be any more and my children Mia and Carter are going to grow up without him.

He was an avid storyteller and filled any room he was in. Of all the stories he told repeatedly here’s one you may not have heard: the time my dog gunner had diarrhea all over the inside of his truck.  For those of you that know how fastidious he was will know how upset this made him. 

I can’t think about what his “deer sounds” or “turkey call” sounded like without smiling.  My kids can even imitate it. 

He liked to joke and make people laugh and many times my wife Michelle would interrupt him and ask, “is this a joke or did it really happen?”

As a kid, he taught me how to follow through on a jump shot, how to hit a baseball, and he tried to impress upon me that knowing how to dance was the best way to meet girls.

He told me how important it was to be honest and respectful, but I learned that by watching how he treated and loved my mom. 

He told me about working hard, but I learned about it by watching what he did when he wasn’t at his full time job: rehabbing apartments and painting because providing for his family was his priority.

He taught me to paint, only after I knew how to properly scrape and prepare the surface.  He was the embodiment of the cliché “anything worth doing is worth doing right”.  As a teenage boy I can tell you that made for some pretty long summer days on the ladder. 

He taught me the difference between a flat head and a Phillips head and how to use just about any power tool. He has them all and most of them are in back of his truck which is more like a toolbox on wheels than a road vehicle.

He taught me I could do anything I set my mind to and that my course in life would be determined by my attitude, my perceptions, and my choices.  He always said he wanted to write a book about that.

He was my role model and he made me who I am today. He dedicated his career to education and was committed to making an impact in young people’s lives during his 33 years in the classrooms/gyms and hallways. 

My dad would strike up a conversation with anyone.  We have joked that there may be several waitresses or gas attendants here today that none of us even know.  He was truly interested in people and it was the way he learned. 

He filled any room he was in but never tried to impress anyone.  I never knew him to buy a new car and lived in the same house most of his life so he could provide the best life for his family.

We shared a special closeness –years of painting houses together, rehabbing the cabin at South Ridge, going to sporting events, rooting for the buckeyes, and watching the sun come up in the woods on a deer or turkey hunt. Spending time in the woods became a shared passion we enjoyed together the last 20 years.  These are some of my fondest memories and are going to be some of my hardest days in the upcoming months and years.

Tomorrow is selection Sunday for the NCAA basketball tournament and he would have been making his picks.  He loved college football and basketball. He loved going to games regardless if it was college, high school, or one of Mia or Carters games.  Carter just wrapped up his first basketball season and even though those five-year olds were running with the ball without dribbling he was there watching like it was the most important thing for him to be doing.  I think it was for him. 

My father lived a full life and anytime he brought up the subject of his own demise he clearly stated he wanted to be cremated and wanted us to look at a picture of him looking like Tom Cruise celebrating his life over a glass of Crown Royal.  I think we can do the latter two but I went through a lot of pictures this week and I can tell you none of them had him looking anything like Tom Cruise.

I always knew that he loved me, my wife, and kids and that he was proud of me. He felt family and friends were the most important thing in his life and should take priority. One of my most important lessons learned.

Good bye Dad.

I love you,

Kirby

This is one of the few photos I was able to find of our many get togethers for the Red, White and Boom dinner and fire works with Neil and Janet along with Louise Kutz and the Nicholsons, Dick and Sara.  We always had a great time and many stories to share ..... what fun times!!  It was hard to top Neil's tales!!

Dave and Lavonne Roscoe

I was greatly saddened to hear of Neil's death.  I will always remember him as a kind and gentle friend.  The St. Paris bunch was close-knit -- there weren't that many of us! -- and he was at the core of it. 

David Meyer

Neil and I were friends since we were in the 4th grade.  We played basketball in High school together, he was a very good ball player.  We graduated, he went off to College and I went off to the Army.  I really enjoyed the Christmas letters every year and will dearly miss them. You are in our thoughts and prayers.

Jim Yontz