My Dad once told me, “it ‘s better to go through life being saluted than having to salute to someone else, only you can make that happen.” What I think he meant by that was, become a Positive leader, hard worker, get an education, and earn the love and respect of the people around you.

My Father was one of the few that could make that happen. No matter who he talked to they knew that they should be listening just because he had that kind of a presence.

Only one time in my life did I ever hear anyone chastise him. I was around 10 years old when we were leaving a Suns Game and there was a really bad traffic jam because a road was blocked off. So with my dads predictable lack of patience, he decided to take boldly take his own detour around it, by going over the sidewalk. He was promptly pulled over by a police officer who didn’t think it was as nearly as funny as I did. To this day when I reflect on this story, I can't help but smile at my dads rare example of having to salute and take responsibility for being in the wrong. 

 My father put everything he had into everything he did. He never gave up – not on basketball, business school, tennis and most of all he never gave up on me. He was there for my sport events and always found time to shoot hoops outside. Our favorite past time though was definitely fishing. Every father son vacation we took, we did some kind of fishing. Those are my best memories of him…especially him and I fishing together.

Some people can boast that they walked among giants, Kings or hero’s. I can say that I was raised by a man who was all three. My father was a great man. I am part of his legacy and as such will do my best to make sure he will be proud of me.