Dad's Eulogy

I guess the most difficult bit for me is that Dad normally did the speeches at family functions, so this feels a bit like trying to fill his shoes.

I have been told that Dad and I sound alike, especially over the phone. When I still lived with my parents that lead to a few awkward phone calls, such as a couple of occasions where I was given work details intended for Dad. Or my wife's first conversation with her future father-in-law being a detailed description of what we had planned for the weekend, before Dad could interrupt to tell Claire that she had the wrong Robinson. Thankfully we weren't planning anything more embarrassing than a trip to the pub!

Family was always important to Dad. When I was a child, Dad was busy with work, but he'd find time to play football in the garden with Anne and I, and we always ate as a family. My extended family has always been spread out, so we didn't see each other that often, but whenever there was an excuse for a gathering, Dad would always make the effort to attend, and catch up on everyone's news.

Christmas always brought out the family side in Dad. I guess it does for many of us. After the kids had been watched opening their presents and we'd all eaten too much turkey, Dad would spend most of the afternoon on the phone to whichever of his siblings were elsewhere that year. Dad's favourite type of Christmas presents were books of facts and anecdotes. It didn't seem to matter too much what the subject was - sport, trains, and history all went down well. When he wasn't on the phone, he'd sit in an armchair, reading the interesting bits out to the rest of us.

By the time I was old enough to notice such things, Dad had moved into management, a role which brought him to Scotland back when the Clyde valley was still the "silicon glen". But Dad started in research, figuring out how to make the computer chips that now run the world. This always struck me as strange, given his inability to even set the video. I suspect he just never saw the need to learn. He didn't watch much television, and Mum would record the few things he was interested in.

Certainly, when Dad did have an interest, there was no stopping him. Decades ago his stamp collection reached the point where if he didn't have a stamp it was either of no interest or he couldn't afford it. Dad simply moved on to postal history. As Dad got into postal history, he found he wanted a certain kind of reference work. Since no one had written one that suited him, he wrote his own - "For the Port and Carriage of Letters". Somehow he managed to typeset this using an old BBC micro and a dot-matrix printer, managing to get them to do tricks that most experts would have told you weren't possible.

Dad's other great love was sport. Cricket never seemed kind to him. I've heard many stories about his father's anger when Dad and siblings or cousins had been playing cricket and ripped up the lawn or, famously, smashed the window. The worst incident came later, while Dad was batting for his work's side, and a wasp got inside his trouser leg and stung him repeatedly. Maybe that's why in my memory he was more interested in football, which tended to be kinder to him. Well, other than Bolton Wanderers - complaints about his useless team are amongst my earliest memories, and continued up till the last few weeks. I never saw Dad playing football, for me he was always the referee, something he took up after someone suggested that if he knew the rules so well maybe he should be the referee. Dad was a good referee, but I can't comment on the suggestion that this was largely because he'd already learnt all the dirty tricks a player could commit.

I could go on for another hour, but I guess everyone here can tell their own anecdotes, and will remember Dad in their own way. I suspect I'll best remember his ability to do anything he set his mind to, his inquisitiveness, and that he could always find something to talk about with anyone. And while writing this, I've been reminded just how much of my own personality I inherited from Dad. I just hope I live up to his example.