Happy Father’s Day! In honor of this annual occasion, we’d like to highlight some awesome dads. Here are some dad who loved their kids and made the world a better place for other children as well.
1. Charlemagne, A.D 742-28
Charlemagne, sovereign of the Franks and emperor to the Romans in the eighth and ninth centuries, had 20 children. He required all his children receive a full education, including the girls. When one of his sons, Pepin the Hunchback, was found guilty of participating in a plot to assassinate Charlemagne, the emperor took compassion on Pepin, commuted his execution punishment and sent him to a monastery instead.
2. Thomas More, 1578-1535
Thomas More afforded his three daughters the same classical education as his son, which was very unusual for 16th century England. During More’s imprisonment for treason in the Tower of London — for refusing to support King Henry VIII’s split from the Catholic church — his oldest daughter, Margaret Roper, came to visit him often. After his beheading, Margaret bribed the man who was supposed to throw her father’s head into the Thames River, saving it for a burial.
3. Lieutenant-Colonel George Lucas, 1695-1747
Lucas secured his daughter Eliza a real education, which she later wrote was “a more valuable fortune than any you could have given me.” By the time Eliza was 16, she was overseeing the family’s three plantations in South Carolina. With seeds from her father, she introduced indigo, which became an important cash crop, and Eliza was later inducted into South Carolina’s Business Hall of Fame.
4. Charles Darwin, 1809-1882
The father of evolutionary theory and naturalist had 10 children. He adored them all and was completely shattered by the death of 10-year-old Annie in 1851. His other children remembered him as a loving narrator who was greatly interested in their lives.
5. Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., 1821-1878
The 26th U.S. President called his father “the best man I ever knew.” He offered this homage in his autobiography: “He combined strength and courage with gentleness, tenderness and great unselfishness. He would not tolerate in us children selfishness or cruelty, idleness, cowardice, or untruthfulness. He made us understand that the same standard of clean living was demanded for the boys as for the girls; that what was wrong in a woman could not be right in a man. With great love and patience, and the most understanding sympathy and consideration, he combined insistence on discipline.”
6. Mark Twain, 1835-1910
Twain had three daughters and was exceptionally close with his oldest, Susy, who shared his love of writing and acting. He centered at least two key characters in his novels on her.
7. Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865
The Lincolns had four children who had free reign to run and play in the White House. However, only one, Robert Todd Lincoln, survived until to adulthood. The deaths of their children left the Lincolns devastated. When 11-year-old Willie died in 1862, Lincoln wrote, “I know that he is much better off in heaven, but then we loved him so. It is hard, hard to have him die!”
8. Nicholas II, 1861-1918
The last Russian emperor had five children. A doting father, Nicholas was particularly concerned about the health of his only son and heir, Alexei, who suffered from hemophilia. Their child’s illness steered the czar to consult the provocative healer Rasputin, whose sway over the royal family conceded their standing on the eve of the Russian revolution.
9. Jim Henson, 1936-1990
Henson was a father of five, and his creation of the Muppets and Sesame Street entertained and educated children across the world. His children involved themselves in the family business, with two becoming executives of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, and his daughter Cheryl is president of the Jim Henson Foundation.
10. William Jackson Smart, 1842-1919
This Civil War veteran raised six children on his own after his wife died in childbirth. In 1910, daughter Sonora Smart Dodd pushed for a new holiday to commemorate her dad and others like him. Father’s Day was established for the third Sunday in June, and the rest is history!