Memorial for my Dad
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