I wrote about my mom on Mother’s Day, and since my dad is pretty amazing as well, you should know about him too. He’s a little bit Forrest Gump, a little Chandler Bing, a little Steve Martin, and there’s this other part of him that can’t be described by naming a celebrity or pop culture character.

He’s simple, he’s humble, he’s adventurous and he’s hilarious.

His whole life he wanted nothing more than to be a mountain man. He moved to Montana right after high school, but came back to Michigan when he found out my mom got pregnant during one of his holiday visits home. At age 20 he married her and by age 28 he had fathered five kids. He left my mom soon after that, and while that part of life was hard for all of us, I don’t doubt that he never stopped loving us. If we weren’t number one in his life, he would have moved back to Montana a long time ago.

For a long time he vowed to go to my youngest sister’s high school graduation with a truck full of gear because he was driving west right after the ceremony. Instead, he had his sixth child about five years before that graduation, and now he’s married with two kids under the age of ten.

He’s got five daughters and two sons, he’s worked at the same place for almost 30 years, he drives a pickup truck with crank windows and a stereo that doesn’t even have a cassette-player (by choice). He is not a typical dad—you can’t get away with buying him a grill or golf balls or sports paraphernalia or a tie. Actually you can’t get away with buying him much because he doesn’t like a lot of attention or gifts. Though he does hold on to every damn thing that crosses his path. Anything you need, he’s got three in his garage.

My dad insists on humor in our family, he is welcoming to anyone we bring home, he’s not afraid to make a fool of himself (actually he does it on purpose quite often), and he is a very deep intellectual, always observing and questioning what’s around him. That is something I have learned from him and hope to pass on to my kids someday.

Happy Father’s Day Dad!