RIP KEN McVay: A FATHER'S TIMELESS IMPACT!

[@DANG--]

Sending Prayers for you and your family!

[@TheOldJarhead]

Thanks my friend

[@Twobrothersoutdoors]

Lots of great memories to reflect back on

[@TheOldJarhead]

Yes, thank you!

[@TN-Mountain-Life]

Thank you for sharing your stories. Priceless memories!!

[@TheOldJarhead]

Thanks for watching!

[@ElectrabuzzXD]

Amazing story, brother. Thank you so much for sharing it with us. So many of us lost our fathers prematurely and the best thing we can do is tell the story just like you did 👍

[@TheOldJarhead]

Thank you so much!

[@JamesHaynes-ri8qg]

Sorry for your loss. Great stories. Thank you for sharing them.

[@TheOldJarhead]

Thanks. I appreciate that.

[@TomTammyOffGridHomestead]

Your dad was right. Tell the story so many can learn. Great story, your dad will live forever if you tell the stories. In that way the story can repeat and grow. Remember Marines never die. Semper Fi,

[@TheOldJarhead]

Thanks brother!

[@daveslater]

That was some bad news. Great story and told well to have made a good listen. Lost mine last Dec. Never get over it, just as you said, you get on with it.

[@TheOldJarhead]

I'm sorry to hear about your dad 😞 yes, we get on but not over.

[@andysmith8544]

I had intentions of asking you about the name of your mobile milling services, but now I know! Well done tribute to your Dad.

[@TheOldJarhead]

Thanks, Andy, and yes, now you know where Manley comes from 😉

[@johnmal5975]

I am sorry for your loss my prayers are with you and your family. Your Dad sounds like he was real. Man I respect that so much its a rare trait these days unfortunately. We wouldn't be in this mess if others had it. Anyone reading this keep his stance on free speech because if we don't our children's children will curse the ground we walk on.

[@TheOldJarhead]

Thank you! and yes, very real! His nickname on twitter was 'toowhiteforcocacola' in protest of some of their policies. He was a fierce warrior of freedom, free speech, and our rights.

[@StrideTowardPeace]

Erik's oldest sister here. Naturally, we remember some things differently, but much of what Erik recalls about our father here is accurate. A friend of mine who knew our dad through dragon boat racing (yes, Dad got right into dragon boat racing for a few years too, among his many other obsessions) calls our late father "a contrarian." Dad was certainly that! He loved a good argument and would seize almost any opportunity to start one. Pissing people off that he didn't like, or who didn't like him, was something he seemed to relish. That was why he started a hippie commune on our quarter section in what at the time was a small and very redneck Vanderhoof. I suspect it was also a big part of how he got so into fighting holocaust revisionists and white supremacists on usenet. It was certainly a common catalyst for our almost constant moving from town to town, as Dad had a big problem with authority & would readily tell any boss who said/did something Dad didn't like to eff off, immediately quitting or getting himself fired in the process. Right or wrong, Dad insisted on living life on his terms and his terms only. As an aside, wrt the importance of free speech, I remember Dad saying, many times, that he was against censoring hate speech b/c it drives the racists underground & he wanted them "out where I can smell'em." Dad certainly committed himself to any passion he developed, and to an exceptionally high--some might say "obsessive"--degree. As an ex of mine used to say about me, "She's a McVay & they don't do anything half-assed. They either do things 1,000% or they don't do it all." And while Dad's passion for sports cars and music (and women) was lifelong, he had countless other, um, "hobbies" (obsessions) throughout his life. To name just a few: political protesting (very left-wing for much of his life, then very right-wing in the last 2 or 3 decades), being an audiophile, raising/breeding tropical fish, making metal sculptures, macrame, being a very active union leader, high-end sound systems (a $30,000+ stereo system for your home in 1980, anyone?), computers (long before most other laypeople knew anything about them), dragon boats, and most recently, raising a wide variety of orchids. In the mid-80s he decided he was going to be a Christian. Suddenly, he started going to church every Sunday, put away all of his rock and blues LPs & our home (he lived with me at the time) was suddenly littered with Daily Bread pamphlets. Within the next year he even wrote a digitized concordance of the Bible. Then, just as suddenly, he wasn't a Christian anymore. Yep, that was our Dad. I do not agree that Dad was brilliant, but he was certainly a very intelligent man in terms of his IQ. There is no argument though that, sadly, he was a very troubled, deeply wounded man throughout his life. Naturally, the four of us kids had very different relationships with our Dad and they were all certainly troubled, but as Erik has expressed, that legacy includes many unusual experiences, and many strengths and skills we can attrubute in large part to Dad. Each of us have had our turn as a source of pride in some way with him, and each of us have our own stories about him. At the end of the day though, for better or for worse, he lived life on his own terms and I don't know a single person who knew him who would say differently. R.I.P. Dad.

[@TheOldJarhead]

Amen and well said Lisa! Love you big sis! and mad what a life we've lived! Crazy, full, adventurous, tumultuous, damaging, healing, rewarding and painful all at once.

[@StrideTowardPeace]

Yep. ​@@TheOldJarhead