Dad of the Month is Up!

We have our June Dad of the Month interview posted on the main page at Dadsworld.com.  In honor of Father’s Day, and because he is a Fantastic Dad, this month’s DOM (dad of the month) is MY Dad, Gary Gray. 

I have talked about my Dad in several of my previous blog posts.  He was and still is a very family-focused man.  That is where I get my desire to be very close to my own family.  We always did things together growing up.  He worked for U.S. Bank for 33 years before becoming a builder, but his focus was always his family.  We spent evenings together talking about our day and what was going on at school and his work.  We always ate dinner together as a family.  We spent weekends together driving around looking at the sights, snow and water skiing, going to U of O Trackmeets and Football games, and we spent vacations together as a family, camping and fishing and being outdoors.

My Dad was and still is always there for me.  We have always had good talks, and we still enjoy working together every now and then.  He is a General Contractor, and all around handy-man.  He has always been good at building and fixing things.  He remodeled or built many of the homes we lived in while I was growing up.  He built many homes in the Bend area, and does remodels, decks and fences in the Portland area now.   I still get him business from my Real Estate contacts, and we work on some jobs together.

I have always admired my Dad in several ways.  First of all, he and my Mom have been married 43 years, so he taught me the concept of faithfulness and commitment.  My Dad always wanted to do stuff with my Mom, brother and me.  He didn’t hang out with friends at work, or spend his vacations or weekends doing stuff for himself.  He taught me how valuable and close a family can and should be.  My Dad is a very intelligent, logical problem solver.  He is left brained, and very good with numbers and math problems.  He is usually the first to figure out the brain teaser puzzles that you get at the Discovery store and places like that. 

He encouraged me to stick with college, when I was weighing other options.  He values knowledge and education.  He would send me articles he thought I would find interesting when I was away at college, and he would give me motivational books and tapes when I was just a kid.  He is the reason that I like to listen to so many personal development speakers, because he likes them himself and encouraged me as well.

I am very blessed to have the family that I do.  My childhood was excellent, and we are still very close to this day.  One thing that I am going to make sure I do with my kids, something that my parents did for me, is to be a model of the right behavior.  That way your kids grow up respecting you, like I respect my parents.  I have talked about this before, but not wanting to disappoint my parents kept me out of a lot of trouble.  That is a much more effective tool than the threat of punishment.  This only works though, if the parents really have the kids respect.

Thanks Dad, for being the kind of man that is worth modeling.  You’re the best.

I hope you enjoy his interview.  He recently went to Hawaii with my Mom and my brother and his family.  During that trip he had a picture of himself taken at a beautiful location with a Dadsworld.com shirt on!  He’s getting prepared for our coming photo contest.  Be sure to get your Dadsworld.com shirt, and take a picture of yourself somewhere interesting.  Email me a copy of the picture, and I will add it to our archive.  Soon we will have a section of Dadsworld.com member pictures from around the world!

Have a great day, and don’t forget that this month is Father’s Day.  Be sure to contact your Dad this month, and while you are at it, tell him about our great website. 

Tags: brother, builder, contractor, dad, dadsworld, fathers day, hawaii, marriage, married, mom, shirt, t-shirt, u.s. bank