Bruner Blog

Dear Dad,

I am sorry I couldn’t be there with you to raise a glass in celebration of your 80th birthday in person, but I am lucky to have friends such as Steve who can help extend these best wishes on my behalf.

I’m proud to call you my father. You are truly a great man, and I’m sure all those in the room celebrating with you tonight will agree. I’ll try to keep this short, so as not to monopolize the evening, but let me recognize just a few of the countless riches I’ve inherited from you through your love, teachings and example:

A love of language and the craft of writing

An unquenchable curiosity and thirst for discovery and adventure

A striving to seek justice and defense for the rights and dignity of all people

Unqualified encouragement for all my creative ambitions

A spirit of youth undefined by age

Your frugality with money is countered in opposite proportion to your generosity of spirit. The irony is not lost of me that through your example I feel I have learned to embrace the Christian value of the Golden Rule better than most, despite being raised as a devout atheist.

The milestones in my life in which you played a role a too many to count, but here are just a few: guiding me to the University of Montana, the source of much self-discovery; helping me land my first job at the BVI Beacon, where I learned to support myself through hard work; tempting me to the life of an expat in Budapest, which incomparably opened my view of the world; co-founding with me (and Steve and the others) the late, great Budapest Week, some of the best years of my life; introducing me to Pam Clarke, who in turn introduced me to my wife, Adrienne, my eternal love; introducing me to Steve Carlson, one of my most faithful friends.

If only I had inherited also your diligence and time management skills, I would have started this toast earlier and made it perhaps a more deserving tribute. But I know you love me unconditionally, as I do you, and so I hope you recognize in these hastily typed words the sincerity with which I thank you for being a great dad, a great friend and a great role model.

Much love,

Rick

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 26th, 2006 at 11:24 am and is filed under aa-home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.