History Of Father's Day

Father’s Day is a holiday honoring fathers that was only introduced in the last century.

The “Father’s Day” holiday has two possible origins that surprisingly happened within a year from one another in the 1900s.

In 1908 in Fairmont, West Virginia on a church held the nation’s first event specifically to honor fathers. A woman by the name of Grace Golden Clayton had suggested to her priest that they should hold services to celebrate fathers after a deadly mine explosion had killed over 360 men that previous December.

In 1909 on the opposite side of the country in Spokane, Washington a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd had wanted to celebrate her father after listening to a Mother’s Day sermon. Wanting equal celebration of both parents, Dodd visited local churches, the YMCA, shopkeepers and government officials to drum up support for her idea. As we can tell, she was quite successful. The following year on June 19th, the state of Washington celebrated the nation’s first Father’s Day.

At the service young women handed out red and white roses to fathers and families, red roses were given to the living and white roses were pinned to clothes in memory of those deceased. Dodd then brought her infant son and rode in a horse-drawn carriage through the city to deliver roses and gifts to those fathers that were homebound.

Surprisingly it wasn’t until 1972, almost 62 years later, that Father’s Day became an official U.S. holiday when President Richard Nixon signed it into public law, but thanks to Dodd it steadily generated popularity across the country during that period.

Father’s Day at Radiall
We asked fathers working at Radiall to share their stories of being a father and their stories of their own fathers. Here’s what they had to say:

What’s the funniest thing your child has ever done?

“The time that he taught my mother in law the valuable lesson of ‘always check to be sure he's done going’ before changing his dirty diaper.”

- Justin Garrard