OCTOBER 25, 2019
REMEMBERING DAD
One hundred and one years ago on this date my Dad was born in the city of Ucon in Bonneville County, Idaho. The 1920 Census counted 364 people living there. In 2010 the Census counted 1,108 people living there. After the US Great Depression began to take hold my Dad's parents moved their family to the peninsula area south of San Francisco. Dad had graduated from Sequoia High School in Redwood City by 1937. His name was Rulon Milton West but everyone called him "Dick" West. Upset at my Dad's tendency as a boy to get into trouble a neighbor in Idaho gave him the nickname "Dick" after an English highwayman named Richard Turpin who lived from 1705 until 1739 when he was executed in York for horse theft. My Dad once told me that story when I asked him how he got his nickname.
Dad entered the US Army several months before America entered World War II. After boot camp he married Frances Belle Ray in August of 1941. What was supposed to be a short enlistment lasted almost six years until he was discharged in 1945.
My first recall of Dad is when my sister Suzanne was born in 1947 and he and I went to the hospital to pick up my Mom Frances and my new sister Suzanne to bring them home. By that time almost all of my Dad's family from Idaho had settled in San Francisco and were living in or near the Marina district. From then until his retirement in late 1980 Dad worked for Zellerbach Paper Company in San Francisco. In that time he went from being an accounting clerk to being the manager of the accounting department. Unfortunately I followed in his alleged footsteps and managed to get into plenty of trouble through my teenage years. That all ended in 1961 when I graduated from high school and left for a three year stint in th US Army.
Dad supported me for year when I returned from the army in 1964, took a part-time job, and began attending City College of San Francisco. Within a year the renewed GI Bill allowed me to collect a monthly stipend while I attended college and Dad was free of my expenses for most of the time. But when things got a little tough Dad was always there with a helping hand. Dad was always helping family members. Most had suffered greatly during the 1930s and some never really recovered from the troubles of those years. During all of his life that ended early before his 65th birthday Dad continued to help whenever he saw or anticipated someone else's possible need.
So here is to you, Dad. Like many of your generation you cared about others and did all you could to make this world a better, a fairer, and a kinder place.
May each of us carry on your tradition for as long as possible.