I know that everyone on Facebook is posting those lame “Best Dad in the World” status updates today and tomorrow, so I was a little reluctant to post this, but on the other hand, it’s nice to have this stuff on file for posterity.

My father, Joseph Lloyd Barron, was born April 15, 1935. He married my mother, Sarah Jo Batten, December 21, 1957, the day after he was discharged from the Army Reserve. Both native Missourians, they moved to Lawton, Oklahoma in 1971, and to Palm Coast, Florida in 1987. For most of his career, Joe was an educator, spending the bulk of his life as a contract management training specialist for the Federal Aviation Administration. In the mid-1980s, Sarah Jo joined him in that capacity, serving as an educational team until their retirements in the mid-1990s. He died in 2005.

Abby’s father, William Hershel Shoffner, was born May 23, 1923. He served in World War II in the United States Navy. For his entire career, he served as a machinist and engineer for Haliburton in Duncan, Oklahoma, where some of his designs were patented. He also operated a machine shop at his Ryan, Oklahoma home. He married Agness Ann Mitchell October 12, 1947, and the couple had four daughters. Hershel died last year.

Abby and I were very fortunate to get to know each other’s fathers before they passed. We both miss our dads, and each other’s dads, very much this Father’s Day.