40 Dads That Won Over The Internet By Being Absolutely Epic

After my parents divorced my dad was on a super lean budget. He planned a weekend getaway for just he and I to the Oregon Coast to watch a kite flying festival. Pretty cheap but safe accommodations and decent food. Well we go to a bookstore (I was a rabid reader at that point.) I'm browsing around mostly just looking at new releases. I found a book of John Keats complete works and just had to have it so I took it over to him and asked for it. He took the book and said "hmmm let's see what its about" and turned to the back. What I didn't realize until I got much older was that he was checking the price. He said yep this looks good. That night he took me to a local pizza place for a slice and a soda. He only drank a soda and said he had a bit of a tummy ache. That man sacrificed a dinner so I could have a book. I still get onion eyes to this day even writing this.

Took responsibility for his actions, went to therapy, found a support group, became better.

The thing that stands out to me, more than anything that I saw my father do?

My little brother had passed away. There were complications during his surgery, he didn’t die on the table but they realized he wasn’t going to make it. So they stabilized him, put him on a machine and gave the family an opportunity to make the necessary calls for people that wanted to say goodbye to him.

The next day, after everyone was able to come out and see him and say goodbye, we turned the machines off. The day after that, we were up at the hospital for some reason, which I can’t remember because a lot of things were very blurry at the time. Anyhow, I went with my dad as he went around to every single person that was in the room and literally had their hands in my brother to try and save his life. He shook each one of those people’s hands, thanked them for trying and did his best to emotionally absolve them of the guilt they might have felt. He was gracious, classy and kind. He, who just lost his youngest son at the age of 19, took the time to thank them for trying.

It. Was. F*****g. Epic.

OK, it was a long time ago, because I'm 60 now.

In high school, my dad played football. In those days, it wasn't uncommon at an away game for the team to go out to eat and have the restaurant refuse to seat the two black guys on the team. My dad (and the whole team) would then simply walk out. I'm sure it didn't change many minds, but that was his own small contribution to the civil rights struggle, and I'm proud of him for it.

Survived Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and Dachau (but lost his mom, dad, and big brother).

My dad got up every morning, worked hard his entire life, loved my mother, loved and spent time with his 6 kids. You could tell he enjoyed being with you. So no big story here, just a good man extending much effort to provide stability and love for his family. As simple as this is, it is what I believe to be the highest form of living possible. I try to be the same.

He was a teacher and well liked by pretty much everyone. One summer, neighborhood kids invited him out to a place they were going in the country to test out model rockets they were building. Long story short, it went really, really wrong. A rocket came back at them, he shoved everyone out of the way, and took the rocket to the leg where it exploded, destroying his leg. Being in the middle of nowhere, it was 20 minutes before an ambulance could get to him. He is a former firefighter and EMT, so to stay alive until they could get to him, he reached inside what was left of his leg and pinched off the femoral artery and held it until help got there.

They life-lifted him from the hospital to a major trauma center a couple hours away where he underwent surgery to amputate everything. The next morning he woke up and the nurses asked if he needed anything. He asked if they could bring him a long chunk of wood and some carving tools so he could get started on his new leg.

A month and a half later he was back in his classroom teaching to start the school year.

When I was 13 I was having a hard time with puberty and felt very insecure. I cried a lot and felt ugly all the time. Sometimes I was bullied.

My parents were divorced, and dad worked at VW, testing cars which were not yet known, let alone be for sale. He was a handsome, tall guy with the most beautiful voice.

One day in school, when I was feeling especially down, he picked me up, parked a brand new white Golf cabrio (yet unknown for public) with open roof right in front of all the “cool” kids including my crush, and waited for me to come out, rocking his long curly hair and sunglasses.

I swear ALL the kids were drooling, asking each other whose car that was. I shyly walked to the car and sat down right next to him, he greeted me and handed me a small package. Everything seemed in slow motion while I was opening my gifts; two pairs of the most beautiful earrings and a necklace.
Then off we flew in the white convertible, boosting 90’s hits.

Everyone was staring. I felt like a rockstar.

Miss you SO much, dad.

I was estranged from my dad for 25 years, after my mother abducted me to Australia. I made a real effort to track him down after my wife got pregnant with our first child to let him know he was going to be a grandfather. Fast forward three years and we're finally reunited. Our first son was very clingy to mum and didn't like strangers, and would instantly shirk any kind of attention from anyone except immediate family. On our first day out, we're standing in the carpark and my dad tells us he's going to take us to a nice little cafe for lunch, and then he says "Alright, come on little guy" reaches out and takes my son's hand, and he just goes with him. The two of them walk off together hand in hand, and my dad is talking happily with his first ever grandson. My wife and I let them go off ahead a little bit and followed behind.

My father died the following year, and this was to be the first and last time I saw him in 25 years, and the first and last time my son would meet his grandad. My son knew his own. And my dad did it with such confidence and safety that he didn't get a chance to feel anxious about leaving mum's side.

Thankfully I have a photo of that moment. It's a precious memory.

My dad was a cop in a large American city. By the time I was teenager he already had over 25 years on the job and had retired into a second career as an insurance investigator. Not once, but twice, he and I were out running errands and witnessed horrible car accidents. This is before the era of cell phones. Both times I watched as he quietly put our car into park and set about stabilizing the wounded, delegating tasks to gawkers, and pretty much taking charge until the first responders got there.

Pretty much the worst s**t I've ever seen in my life, he calmly went about the business of saving lives.

When I was 10 he was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer and was told he had 2 months to live at best. He told the doctors no and battled for 9.5 years before passing in 2014. During that time he always worked hard and made time to help people while still giving me and my 4 siblings as normal a life as he could. Especially my youngest siblings who were twins that were a little under 2 years old. He got to give them some more time and not just a man in a picture as a memory. There’s not a single person who I’ve come to respect half as much as my father. Nothing is more bad*ss to me than a person going through some awful s**t, but they still somehow power through and persist on. Trying to take notes as I go through my own, more minor, leukemia diagnosis. Couldn’t have asked for a better role model.

In elementary school, my siblings and I were maybe 1 of 10 Asian families. For breakfast I would eat anything from Korean and American foods. I once had a stew my mom made and went to school. My old, white, racist teacher came up straight to my 8year old face and told me I smelled ethnic and needed a shower. I went home and told my dad. He was so mad, I thought his head was going to blow up. At the time, he had a Korean secretary whose husband was a Polish American WWII vet. My dad took him (who was also very mad) to my teacher and principal. We called him grandpa. Well grandpa told the teacher and principal that I was his granddaughter. And if the school had issues with my ethnicity that he would sue and expose them to racism and let everyone in the neighborhood know that my school is not the place to be. That he didn’t fight the Nazis to come back home to fight the same bs. Anyway they left me alone after that. My dad was the best for defending me and coming up with the idea. And my “grandpa” for pretending and defending a complete stranger. I loved him like a real grandpa.

Jumped into a freezing river with heavy currents to save my 4 pound childhood dog.

Once wore a Batman costume to a job interview because it was Halloween. He got the job.

My Dad set the record at our local transplant center for people volunteering to be tested to see if they were a match to donate him a kidney. If that doesn't indicate a life well lived, I don't know what does. My Mom's sister ended up being a great match and the transplanted kidney has been going strong for 20 years!

Headed a debate with students and staff about the importance of gay rights at university in the 1970’s.

For Christmas in 1986 me and my sisters really wanted a Nintendo Entertainment System from Santa.  My father told us that if we teamed up and cleaned the basement he would put in a good word for us with Santa.  So we worked our asses off to make that basement spotless.

On Christmas morning we snuck downstairs and didn't see any boxes big enough to be an NES, so we all kind of hung our heads a little.  When it was time to open presents we started with the biggest packages first, which were all clothes.  There was one final package that seemed big enough, but it was a pillow or something.

When all the presents were opened our father could see how disappointed we were and said "What's that coming from the basement?".  We immediately perked up and ran down to be basement to the sound of the iconic Mario Brothers theme.

This is the most epic thing my father ever did.  Love ya Pops.

My Dad passed away in Feb of this year. In Dec of last year, he cleared my families (wife and I) debt...all of it, mortgage, college loans for both wife and I, medical, CC, cars, etc... completely. Literally only have utility bills. That was pretty Epic and I miss him dearly.

Had his hat blow off on a windy day in a crowd in Chicago. Stuck his hand in the air, caught another random hat blowing by, wore it instead.

Let all of us finish college even he works only on a minimum wage, he always finds ways to pay for our school so we can have a good future. That was more than epic to me.