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By Mark C. Durkin (read at his father's memorial service on June 1, 2006)
I have many fine memories of my dad that have helped shape my life.
Outdoors
My love of the outdoors was strongly influenced by my dad. We grew up vacationing in the Adirondack Mountains. He loved fishing and pheasant hunting. (That was when you still could find them.) We frequently went on long hikes thru Durand Eastman Park. We boated and sailed on Irondequoit Bay, Lake Ontario and of course Fourth Lake. Now my family boats on Conesus Lake.
Pets
My dad loved his dogs. There was Tie, Ripples, Brandy and Sean. They were truly members of the family. And he gave them their own unique personalities. When his kids became traitors and all acquired cats - guess what - he loved them too! My 18 year old cat Smokey talks to us all the time and he is the smartest member of the family, thanks to my dad's influences.
Family
In raising us I feel that we were the center of his life. He taught us a strong sense of commitment. He made sure that we had a college education and made sure that all our careers were science and math related. The phrase Liberial Arts was not in my father's vocabuary. What are Liberal Arts? He was very generous to his family with his time and money. However, he always had a list of chores for us to do, no matter what our age.
You're in the Army Air Corps Now
He was always an early riser and he wanted us to be too. In the Adirondacks when we used to sleep in the living room on the pull out couch and he would clomp down the hall between 6:30 and 7am each morning to make sure the whole cottage was awake.
He always like very short hair cuts on his boys. We would go to the barber shop and ask for a longer haircut however, since the barber knew my dad, we always got the "Princeton." To this day, I do not like to get up early and I do not like brush cuts.
Sense of Humor
He always told us stories and you never knew if they were true or not. He would threaten to call the Sheriff of Cochise on us. Then he modernized it and eventually it became Sheriff Skinner. One of his favorite tricks when we were three or four years old, was that he would sit us on the top of the refridgerator. He would never let us fall, however this certainly made us look at life from a different perspective.
P.S. Dad here is your new Mercesdes Benz that you always wanted!
With
Love,
Mark