Potus Geeks Photos: Presidents and their Fathers
Happy Fathers' Day. (Did I get the punctuation correct?) It's too bad that photography wasn't around when John and John Quincy Adams hung out together, but here are a few pictures of Presidents and their dads.
1. On October 31, 2010, George W. Bush throws out the ceremonial first pitch to begin game 4 of the World Series between the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants in Arlington, Texas. Standing right beside him is his then 86 year old father George H. W. Bush.
2. When word reached Vice President John Calvin Coolidge Jr. that President Warren Harding had died, he was administered the oath of office by his father, Justice of the Peace John Calvin Coolidge Sr.
3. Here is 12 year old Franklin Delano Roosevelt with his father James Roosevelt, who was considered by some FDR biographers to be "a remote father", but other accounts claim that James was a good father to Franklin, but his recurring heart problems eventually turned him into an invalid.
4. This is a 10 year old Barack Obama with his father, Barack Obama Sr. Obama Jr.'s father divorced his mother and left the family only two years after his birth. He visited his son only one more time, in Hawaii.
5. This is the Reagan family, with father Jack on the left. No, that child on the right isn't a little girl, he's the future 40th President. Jack Reagan had a difficult life as a traveling shoe salesman who scraped and scrapped so his family could get by, and did not fare very well.
6. In this picture, newly elected Congressman Lyndon Johnson kisses his father Sam before leaving on the train to Washington.
In looking for these pictures, I realized that many presidents grew up either without a strong relationship with their father, or with a strained relationship. Some presidents never knew their fathers (e.g. Andrew Jackson), some had abusive fathers (e.g. Gerald Ford, Bill Clinton), some had alcoholic fathers (e.g. Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan). As far as I can tell, there is remarkably little written about the relationship of some presidents and their fathers (Dwight Eisenhower and Jimmy Carter come to mind). Much more seems to be written about Presidents themselves as fathers. For example, in his recent book The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies, author Jonathan Alter notes how some criticize President Barack Obama because he insists on spending his evening in the White House having supper with his children instead of using those meals to schmooze with congressmen and senators. Whatever criticism some might have of the current president, this one sounds more like a character asset than a character defect.
For those of you who are fathers, or who are marking the day by spending time with your fathers, I hope it's a pleasant day for you.
1. On October 31, 2010, George W. Bush throws out the ceremonial first pitch to begin game 4 of the World Series between the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants in Arlington, Texas. Standing right beside him is his then 86 year old father George H. W. Bush.
2. When word reached Vice President John Calvin Coolidge Jr. that President Warren Harding had died, he was administered the oath of office by his father, Justice of the Peace John Calvin Coolidge Sr.
3. Here is 12 year old Franklin Delano Roosevelt with his father James Roosevelt, who was considered by some FDR biographers to be "a remote father", but other accounts claim that James was a good father to Franklin, but his recurring heart problems eventually turned him into an invalid.
4. This is a 10 year old Barack Obama with his father, Barack Obama Sr. Obama Jr.'s father divorced his mother and left the family only two years after his birth. He visited his son only one more time, in Hawaii.
5. This is the Reagan family, with father Jack on the left. No, that child on the right isn't a little girl, he's the future 40th President. Jack Reagan had a difficult life as a traveling shoe salesman who scraped and scrapped so his family could get by, and did not fare very well.
6. In this picture, newly elected Congressman Lyndon Johnson kisses his father Sam before leaving on the train to Washington.
In looking for these pictures, I realized that many presidents grew up either without a strong relationship with their father, or with a strained relationship. Some presidents never knew their fathers (e.g. Andrew Jackson), some had abusive fathers (e.g. Gerald Ford, Bill Clinton), some had alcoholic fathers (e.g. Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan). As far as I can tell, there is remarkably little written about the relationship of some presidents and their fathers (Dwight Eisenhower and Jimmy Carter come to mind). Much more seems to be written about Presidents themselves as fathers. For example, in his recent book The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies, author Jonathan Alter notes how some criticize President Barack Obama because he insists on spending his evening in the White House having supper with his children instead of using those meals to schmooze with congressmen and senators. Whatever criticism some might have of the current president, this one sounds more like a character asset than a character defect.
For those of you who are fathers, or who are marking the day by spending time with your fathers, I hope it's a pleasant day for you.