September 28, 2024

By Dan W. Hall, CAE

My dad, just like many of your dads, was a hard-working man (almost to a fault). However, he loved mom and we kids even though he mostly didn’t show a lot of emotions. He and mom had lived through the depression of the 1930s which was very hard on them as a young married couple with young children.

Dad, his father, and his five brothers started an underground coal mine digging out coal by pick and shovel. The coal from the mine was important to the WWII war effort. Dad was in charge of setting the dynamite each day to loosen the coal veins.

From the money dad made from this dangerous mining work he invested in land and cattle. During the 1940s, dad had become a major producer of wheat, hogs and cattle. Since he was born in 1902 his contribution to winning the war was by providing food necessary for the military. As the saying goes, “An Army moves on its stomach.” This writer, years later when visiting the WWII Memorial in Washington, DC, while speaking to a US Park Ranger, was informed that my father’s name could be inscribed as a contributor to those who helped win the war because of his agricultural production.

Like many of your dads, my dad truly enjoyed playing music. As a teenager he learned to play the tuba and spent three years playing in a dance band then another three years trooping with the Cole Brothers Circus throughout the Southeast, USA. He continued to play in bands and orchestras well into this early 80s. Another of dad’s interests was in organizing his fellow farm families and he became the first Bates County, Missouri, Farm Bureau President. He also served as a board member of his local bank for over forty years.

As I started this article stating that my dad seldom showed much emotion, I will end this story with the one time I did see my dad show real sincere emotion.

You see, over the course of time I became a good acquaintance of the Governor’s Artist of Kansas, one Gary Hawk (who later gained fame as one of President Ronald Reagan’s favorite Western artists). I had ask Gary Hawk to come to my Dad’s farm and (from atop a 90 foot hill overlooking the farm) paint an original oil painting of the farm pond, Herford cattle, and farm buildings. This painting was to be presented to Dad and Mom at their 50th wedding anniversary. I made a “big deal” about this unveiling of the painting, and with all our family gathered around, the painting was unveiled, and for the first time in my life. I saw a tear trickle down my father’s cheek!