Remembering Dad

After a family Thanksgiving gathering -- the second since the loss of his father -- Ron Woolley came home and wrote a touching tribute to his father, their relationship, and how he misses him everyday.

 That tribute is one of 60 published in a new book, "This I Believe: On Fatherhood,"  a collection of statements of belief about the many experiences of fatherhood.

 Woolley, a Cohasset resident who teaches World History at Hingham High School,   said writing about his father after his death was a useful reflection. 

 "It was a family holiday, with everyone together, and I found myself thinking back quite a bit,'" said the 41-year-old father of two young children.   "I hardly had to think about it, it just poured out."

 In his essay, Woolley recollects adolescent conflicts with his father, his dad's wise advice, and their family's experience scattering their ashes in the Gulf of Mexico after his father's passing. Wooley swims frequently off the coast of Cohasset. As a commemoration, he stacks rocks by the sea after he leaves the water.

 "To this day, I still feel a physical connection with my father when I swim in the ocean," said Woolley.  "They are just mini-monuments, small tributes. I know my father is never really far," said Woolley.

 John Gregory, a co-editor of the book, said Woolley's submission stood out from about 100,000 entries because of it's message.

 "He very much takes you on a journey from youth and the conflict fathers and sons have to his realizing the wisdom and the value his father had, and what his father gave him," said Gregory.

 "This I Believe: On Fatherhood," is published by Jossey-Bass  and is available at area bookstores or at www.thisibelieve.org