About the Author

Richard Cochrane is trained in chemistry and metallurgy but is far more interested and practiced as a political and fund raising consultant, writer and amateur historian. He grew up in a Navy family and with his two younger brothers carried on its 500+ year tradition of naval service to Great Britain and the USA then enjoyed a career with one of the largest advertising and public relations agencies working with numerous Fortune 500 companies and many of America's premier educational institutions. He maintains friendships and acquaintanceships around the world. He lives in Santa Barbara, California.

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Happy Father’s Day 2009

June 18th, 2009 • Richard Cochrane
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smart-dodd

2009 is the unofficial 100th Anniversary of FATHER’S DAY. In 1909 Sonora A. Lousie Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington proposed the idea of a day to honor fathers. She recalled how her own father  Willaim Smart, a Civil War veteran , had struggled to raise his six motherless children on an eastern Washington farm. He refforts was rewarded on June 19, 1910 when ministers in Spokane honored fathers and reminded them of their duties to their families.

In 1916 President Woodrow Wilson took part in a Father’s Day celebration by pressing a button in the White House that unfurled a flag in Spokane. In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge urged America to honor fatherhood and impress on fathers of their obligations. The idea spread slowly and during the Depression years it became a day to give Dad something to wear day.

It fell to President Richard Nixon who, in 1972, signed a law proclaiming the 3rd Sunday in June as Father’s Day. Each year since the President has issued a proclamation urging American to remember what fathers have given to their families and country.

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