Photo credit: Getty Images

John at work on the farm. Photo credit: Alarmy

ca. 1923, Plymouth, Vermont, USA — John Coolidge, the father of President Calvin Coolidge, listens to his son’s acceptance speech over the radio. With Mr. Coolidge are (from left to right): Mrs. Guy Mayo, Verna Mayo, Florence Cilley, Colonel Coolidge, Flora Smith, Ruth Aldrich, Aurora Peirce, and John Reed. — Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS

“My father seemed to like to work in the shop, but did not go there much except when a difficult piece of work was required, like welding a broken steel section rod of a mowing machine, which had to be done with great precision or it would break again. He kept tools for mending shoes and harnesses and repairing water pipes and tinware. He knew how to perform all kinds of delicate operations on domestic animals. The lines he laid out were true and straight, and the curves regular. The work he did endured…”

Rendition of the 1923 Homestead Inauguration (Guido Boer)

“…Where succession to the highest office in the land is by inheritance or appointment, no doubt there have been kings who have participated in the induction of their sons into their office, but in republics where the succession comes by an election I do not know of any other case in history where a father has administered to his son the qualifying oath of office which made him the chief magistrate of a nation. It seemed a simple and natural thing to do at the time, but I can now realize something of the dramatic force of the event…”

“…At his advanced age he had overtaxed his strength receiving the thousands of visitors who went to my old home at Plymouth. It was all a great satisfaction to him and he would not have had it otherwise. When I was there and visitors were kept from the house for a short period, he would be really distressed in the thought that they could not see all they wished and he would go out where they were himself and mingle among them. I knew for some weeks that he was passing his last days. I sent to bring him to Washington, but he clung to his old home. It was a sore trial not to be able to be with him, but I had to leave him where he most wished to be.” — Some of Calvin Coolidge’s reflections about his father, Colonel John Coolidge

Happy Father’s Day to all the good men who have risen to the great responsibility of raising children, whether they are family by blood or spiritual bond! May we, the fruit of all your efforts, be living tributes to your honor, continuing the kind of works that endure.