Tim Russert and Fatherhood: A Father's Day Tribute

http://mensnewsdaily.com/2008/06/14/...s-day-tribute/

Gordon E. Finley, Ph.D.

Tim Russert and Fatherhood: A Father's Day Tribute
June 14, 2008 at 2:20 pm

Tim Russert, internationally respected political analyst and moderator of
NBC News' 'Meet the Press,' died unexpectedly and prematurely at age 58 on
Friday the thirteenth of June 2008 - the day preceding the Father's Day
weekend - at work. Russert likely best will be remembered as the
longest-running host of one of television's most intensely incisive
political interview programs. In my view, however, he should best be
remembered as a son, father, and one of the most positive exemplars of and
advocates for fathers and their importance in children's lives.

Russert was born on May 7, 1950. By historical and social chance, his life
spanned the golden years of fatherhood beginning in the decade of the 1950' - when fathers and married family life were portrayed in the most positive of lights - and continued through two score and eight years during which fathers increasingly were depreciated, demeaned, marginalized, and deemed irrelevant both to children and to society.

Blowing against the ideological winds of his adolescent and adult years,
Russert wrote two bestselling books which, should his own wishes be granted,
will be his most positive and long lasting legacy. Big Russ & Me - Father
and Son: Lessons of Life was published in 2004.

From the dust jacket:

"I have learned so much from Big Russ, and I feel so grateful to him, that
I wanted to write a book about the two of us, and also about the other
important teachers in my life, who have reinforced Dad's lessons and taught
me a few new ones.I hope this book will encourage readers to think about the
things they learned from their father. Whatever we achieve and whoever we
are, we stand on their shoulders."

The responses of sons and daughters everywhere to this book were
overwhelming and these spoken, scribbled, and written commentaries about
their own fathers became the foundation of his second book published two
years later: Wisdom of Our Fathers: Lessons and Letters from Daughters and
Sons. Of the many quotable quotes here are three from the Introduction: "By
writing a book about my father, I was affirming not only his life, but the
lives of many other fathers as well"; "Thank you for talking about your dad
in such a positive way, because that was my experience too"; and "If real
estate is about location, location, location, fatherhood is about time,
time, time."

In a life by all accounts well lived, Tim Russert represents a man who not
only talked the talk in two bestselling books but also walked the walk in
his relationships with his own father and son. May the written word
outlive the spoken and may his books influence not only fathers and children
today, but also society for generations to come.

Entombed in Wisdom of Our Fathers is Russert's own obituary:

"When my life is over, I know that the most important thing I'll be judged
on is what kind of father I was."

Gordon E. Finley, Ph.D. is Professor of Psychology at Florida International
University in Miami.