52 Ancestors,
in 52 Weeks
Week 24:
Father
My Father
For this week’s prompt I thought I’d share some favorite photos of my father, Bob LaFara. My father passed away back in 2004, but he lives on in our hearts. I enjoy looking at old photos and telling stories about him. My father was a research scientist with the Navy, but he was so much more than his occupation. He could build anything, and repair everything. He was a good teacher, he taught me to sew, how to change a tire and the oil, how to use power tools and even how to code. I still regularly do one of those things.
School Days
Here’s a sampling of my father’s school portrait photos, elementary, middle and high schools and college.
Military Service
I previously wrote about my dad’s service in the Army Air Corps during World War II for this year’s prompt “Air.” [1] My father was a member of a B24 bomber squadron in the South Pacific. You can view the scrapbook of his military service on the web page I created, “WW2 Photo Scrapbook”. [2] Also, he blogged about his service experience, “My World War II Experiences in the Pacific”. [3] Here’s a photo of him sitting atop the gun turret of a B24 in 1943 and standing next to a retired B24 at an air museum in Fort Worth, TX in 1975. [4]
Fatherhood
Photos of my father as a young dad with four children.
Computers
My father began using computers starting in 1950 when he was a mathematician with the Army at White Sands, NM. The photo below from 1955 is when he went to the IBM facility in White Plains, NY to inspect the IBM 650. [5] The IBM 650 was a vacuum tube machine, with a magnetic, rotating drum for memory and punched cards for data input. My father liked to marvel at how computing had advanced in his lifetime. He had personal computers at home as soon as they were being made. Every one of those PCs far exceeded the computing capabilities of that old IBM 650. Of course, now even our phones have more computing power than the old mainframes. Read my father’s account of his computing career, “Bob LaFara’s Computer Biography”. [6]
Through the Years
Here’s a collection of images spanning nearly 40 years.
Because my father took most the family photos himself, he is in very few of the photographs. So, I particularly like this photo taken by my nephew, capturing granddad holding his camera.
Bob’s Crafts
More Crafts
Here’s a further sampling of just a few of my father’s creations, most are still in use or on display.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed this sampling of photos of my father. He would enjoy knowing I shared them. Be sure to try one of his craft projects and share your results with me.
SOURCES:
- Blog post, Family Finds: Air; https://barblafara.com/air/
- Project post, LaFara Family Projects: WW2 Photo Scrapbook; https://www.lafara.com/project/ww2-photo-scrapbook/
- Blog post, Bob’s Crafts: My WWII Experience; https://bobscrafts.com/wwii.htm
- Website, Commemorative Air Force; https://commemorativeairforce.org/aircraft/3
- Website, Wikipedia: IBM650; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_650
- Blog post, Bob’s Crafts: My Computer Biography; https://bobscrafts.com/bio.htm
- Website, Bob’s Crafts; https://bobscrafts.com/
- Web Page, Bob’s Crafts: Bob’s Stuff; https://bobscrafts.com/bobstuff/index.htm
- Project Post, Bob’s Crafts: Little Chair; https://bobscrafts.com/bobstuff/chair.htm
- Project Post, Bob’s Crafts: Rocking Horse; https://bobscrafts.com/bobstuff/rockhors.htm
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