Ok, it's 11:30 pm and you may think I am writing this post is to keep my 14 day writing streak alive. There are 1,000 things to write about. But I'm going to write about my Dad as an early father's day tribute.
My father is Lee B. Leopold. He is a good subject for this blog because he lived in Philly for most of his adult life. He settled in the city after he left the Army sometime in the 1950's. After his stint in post-war Korea, he got his bachelor's degree at Temple. He worked at places that you still hear about today: Redevelopment Authority, Federation of Jewish Agencies, and Balch Institute. The Federation job is the one he loved best- he was an archivist, which meant he kept records of Jewish history in Philly. He did a lot of geneologies of Jewish families and would go on speaking engagements.
From child eyes, what I admired best about my Dad was he loved to play with his children. He would take me and my sisters to the pool every day in the summer. He was like those Dads you see nowadays...involved and completely delighted in the lives of his daughters. To this day, I get weepy when I see a happy dad and daughter in Rittenhouse Park. And I see a lot of them these days.
I often think what my father would have thought about my life. I think he would have loved that I studied psychology in grad school and that I broke out of my introverted, antisocial shell and have begun to enjoy people. I think he would have loved Facebook and Twitter and he always loved finding and chatting up distant relatives. My dad was endlessly interested in people, in their lives and their histories.
I wish you could have met my father, but he lives on in my mother and my two sisters.
Rest in Peace Dad (October 31, 1935 - June 8, 1990)
P.S. I'll post up a photo of him when I get one scanned in. Have nothing of him on my computer.
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