My father has died at age 95.
Here are a few pictures.
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| L.A. County Art Museum, 1984 |
This was taken during the 1984 Summer Olympics, when my father was 67. A general theme in these photos is that he usually looks about a decade or more younger than he really was, which reflects his robust health.
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| Cabo San Lucas, 1985 |
Two striped marlins, mine 110 pounds (took about 45 minutes to reel in), my father's 155 (took 75 minutes). We thought we were hot stuff until the next boat brought in a 506 pound blue marlin.
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| Honda 90, about 1967 |
I hadn't previously noted my Dad's resemblance to a
French comedian. The child actor looks like a drip, though.
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| Hiking in Topanga Canyon, late 1990s |
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| Atop Lembert Dome, Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite, October 1986 |
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| Atop Sugarloaf, Rio de Janeiro, May 1978 |
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301 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 301 of 301Great pictures of what must have been a full life. Condolences.
Strong to the finish cuz he ate his spinach?
My sincerest condolences, Steve, to you and your family.
RIP
Love that picture from the 60s Steve, reminds me of my family in California.
Sorry for your loss steve-o. He did have a good run, making it to 95 after all... He raised a good man,and He undoughtedly knew that. I wish i could give ya a hug buddy, altho i dont know you i consider you a friend, and honestly feel Ur loss.
I honestly cryed reading this post and thread.... Love ya, steve, dont go a-changin...
Rest in peace. Sounds like a life well lived, if only it could be shared by more and perhaps for even longer.
Very sorry for your loss. Thank you for posting these pictures and memories.
My condolences Steve,
Those are superb photographs - looks like you shared some great memories and he lived a good life.
From just the few glimpses you give of your father his looks like it was an extraordinary blessing for himself and for those he knew.
I think I understand better now where you get the strength and optimism to deal with topics that I tend to find crushingly depressing.
I can't say "I'm sorry," because this post has warmed my heart more than anything I have read for a while. You have my condolences for what must be a great loss to you. God bless you.
My condolences, Steve. May he rest in peace.
A fine man, well-remembered by a fine son. May he RIP.
95.
Incredible.
Stanley Kauffmann is still alive at 96.
Another iron man of longevity.
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/4825
Young may be strong but old is gold.
Sorry to hear that, Sailer.
He looks like he lived a wonderful and interesting life Steve.
I am sorry for your loss. He looks like really nice guy.
It must be hard for you. But I'm very glad to hear of his excellent life. May we all aspire to live so well and to be blessed with kids like you. Thanks for sharing, Steve.
i'm very sorry.
Wow, what a dad! I can see some happy times there.
Through your writing, I'd guess there's a bit of him in all of us now, too
A life well lived.
My condolences.
Soon all the great men of that age will pass. Good times that won't come back.
R.I.P., and best wishes to you and your family.
My condolences, Steve.
A good tribute to your father. My father was born the same year.
My condolences to you and your family steve. Going by the pictures it looks like your father lived a rich and full life!
Condolences to you and the rest of your family. He was obviously well-loved and I enjoyed reading the occasional vignettes that you were kind enough to share with us.
The Beatles, as so often, said it best:
"And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."
Sorry for your loss, Steve; you have all my sympathies.
Your father led a great life in a great place, during great times.
And he bequeathed a great son, too.
Condolences, Steve.
My condolences
Sorry about your Dad.
I liked the Tuolumne Meadows pictures. My wife and I slept up there on our honeymoon in Sept. of '84, it was so cold in the cap of the pickup our water froze.
My condolences Steve.
I'm very sorry to hear of your loss.
i hope your father knew he raised the best blogger (if not writer) in America right now.
Sorry for your loss
-DKS
Steve,
This might not be the right occasion to mention it but if you wrote an autobiography you know us (your readers) would buy it en masse right?
I'd love to support your blog in that way. Just an idea.
I like it when you talk about your dad, and I think the pictures are great. I am sure you are thinking about him a lot. Feel free to post those thoughts and share if you like.
When my dad passed it really hurt. It didn't matter that he had led a really full life and was successful. That probably made it worse, because he was such a great guy and I would never get to speak to him again.
My prayers and respects go out to you and your entire family.
You only get one dad. You had a great one. You are truly blessed.
I'm so sorry, Steve. Your stories about your father over the years were always great. He was truly one of the men who built the American Century and the Golden Age of California.
I hope I can be as good a father to my children as your's appeared to be to you.
I hope your mother is coping as well as can be expected. Take some time off and spend it with those you love and who love you.
What wonderful photos, and how marvelous that he lived such a long & fulfilling life. Your dad really had an epic schnoz, I must say. :)
Thanks for posting this memorial to him; I am very sorry for your loss.
East Coast Anon
I'm sorry, Steve. It looks like he lived life well.
My condolences.
A general theme in these photos is that he usually looks about a decade or more younger than he really was, which reflects his robust health.
He must have been amazingly healthy, given that men of his generation smoked, drank, had poor diets and a lot of stress(Great Depression, WW II). In more recent generations the "-10" look is much more common.
Joy di vivre seeps through all of those pictures.
Those pics tell me he was a caring and attentive father. My best to you and your family at this difficult time.
Those pictures were a beautiful tribute. It looks like you two enjoyed enjoyed a rich relationship. That makes for a good life.
RIP - prayers for your father and your family.
I'm sorry for your loss.
Albertosaurus
Condolences, Steve. He lived a rich and full life. . . .
Sorry for the pain. Congratulations on your childhood. I too spent hours on the back of a trail 90, we had a 13'camp trailer that we used a 46 willies jeep to haul it off any beaten path. One year we hauled that trailer to various parts of the Mojave 50 times.
The first time I was in Cabo around '64 It was just a small fishing village. You and I grew up in the very best of times for a boy.
"Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him."
Lux Aeterna
Requiem in pacem.
My sincere condolences - May your father keep up the good fight in Valhalla.
condolences, Steve. Your post here and the photographs are a great tribute to the man.
Sorry for your loss. Condolences to you and your family.
Sorry for your loss, but it looks like your dad had a hell of a good run.
I'm sorry for your loss.
Mr. Hulot. Lol.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE9t98Gox60
RIP.
I am curious to know whether or not your father influenced your intellectual development in any way? I remember you once posted an article you wrote to The Atlantic while you were still in high school, and it seemed like you were on this path pretty early on. Was he the type who had a lot of "heretical" ideas?
Condolences to you and yours,
He looks like the kind of guy who made America a great country, once upon a time. I loved the holiday snaps from the Golden Age of California.
The present feels like a foreign country, they do things differently here,
1 Samuel 17:55
And when Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, he said unto Abner, the captain of the host, Abner, whose son is this youth? And Abner said, As thy soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell.
- 1769 Oxford King James Bible "Authorized Version"
Condolences, Steve.
I'm sorry to read it. Condolences to you and your family, Steve.
Sorry, Steve. God be with you and your family.
You have my sincere condolences, Steve. May God bless you.
Condolences, Curt Dunkel
My sincerest condolences on your loss, Mr. Sailer.
I just returned from a vacation to the Gulf Coast with my Father - who is getting up there in years - where we took many pictures together like some of the ones you have published here. Thinking on this, how much I dread facing the day my Dad is no longer here with us, I cannot begin to imagine the grief you are feeling now.
Again, my sincerest condolences, and both you and your family will be in the Sylvester household's thoughts & prayers.
As others have commented, it can come off as trite or insincere when a stranger offers condolences to another stranger over the loss of someone he/she didn't know. But in the year or so since I stumbled upon your site, I've read probably five or six posts where you wrote your father. Each post stood out, and each post stuck in my memory.
That's because you wrote affectionately and admiringly about a most impressive and interesting man.
From the way you described your dad, it sounds as though your loss will be the world's loss as well.
Thank you for sharing your stories and pictures. Condolences and best wishes to you and your family. May you still be writing the sharpest commentary in the land at 95 (and beyond).
So sorry for your loss. Darn good run.
RIP.
He seems to have well lived.
Condolences.
My condolences, Steve.
Gilbert Pinfold
Steve,
My condolences.
Mis mas sentidas condalencias.
Steve, longtime reader /commentator, as with others just dropping in to express my sympathy.
Condolences.
Mr. Sailer:
It is so very hard to lose a Father. Mine died several years ago, and a period of deep mourning followed. And to this day I miss him. The clock keeps ticking, and we must press on. But it's tough.
My sincere condolences.
J. Paige Straley
My condolences. He will live on in your memories and lives of those he touched.
95 is a pretty good run.
Can't ask for more than that
Steve,
I'm so sorry for your loss. I'm glad he lived as long and well as he did.
Very sorry to hear about your father's death, Steve.
Seems he lived a full life. Did everything he was put on this earth to do and then some. All deaths are sad but it's how one lives one's life that determines whether the sadness is bitter or sweet.
my condolences to your family. i loved the photos.
RIP
AZ reader
My condolences to you and your family, Steve.
cipher
Condolences, Steve.
Father knows best.
"May we ask what your father thought of your work?"
I'll bet it was...
'boys will be boys'.
My sincere, heart-felt condolonces, Mr. Sailer.
Steve, it is clear that your ability to understand what has been lost stems, in large measure, from the time and place of endless summer where you were born and the man who worked hard to build and buttress the foundations of that time and place, as well as the love and effort expended in tending to his little corner of the world. Thanks for sharing a little bit of that world with us.
I am truly sorry for your loss.
Condolences. Your work speaks to what a remarkable man he was. Over the years reading you I've been deeply impressed by him, and that's offhand, without you even trying. I think without him there may have been a genius out there accomplishing something or other, but only with him would we have gotten Steve Sailer, MVP journalist of the last 15 years and counting. RIP and I hope I live to be so valuable and lucky..
Condolences from Spain. Your dad absolutely seemed to be a great person.
I'm sorry for your loss.
My condolences. It seems like a life well lived.
He looks like a fine man. They don't make them like they used to. I hope you and your family find peace. He has.
A general theme in these photos is that he usually looks about a decade or more younger than he really was, which reflects his robust health.
He looks like he could be in his late 40s in that picture at the museum.
What kind of exercise did he do? He wasn't a jogger, was he? Did he do a lot of leisurely outdoor activities?
"What kind of exercise did he do?"
I can't recall him ever exercising for the sake of exercising (i.e., he never "worked out"). He was always in motion, but for some purpose of his -- trim the bushes, see what's on the other side of the mountain, and so forth.
My condolences
My Condolences, Steve. He seemed to have a very long and happy life.
My condolences Steve.
I second anon above: Well done, Ernie.
My condolences. Thanks for this moving post.
Ernie Borgnine's life spanned the same years as your father's.
-meh
I'm very sorry for your loss.
My condolences
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