Thomas J. West Music

As November ends and rolls into December, my father, James T. West, will be leaving his full-time work for official retirement.

We all have heard the stories of "the American dream" and the self-made man. My dad is a self-made man in every sense of the word. He began his first job at the age of fourteen and has worked consistently for nearly sixty years. He has never counted on anyone to help him financially and has fought his way back from being laid off as part of a corporate downsizing. He turned a large debt into a surplus twice in his life. He leaves his working life on a high note, serving as the quality oversight manager for the World Trade Center construction project - a job that he held onto as long as he could for the simple fact that he believes in what the Freedom Tower stands for.

He also held onto that job because it was helping his family. If it weren't for his contributions to my family, I would have lost my home and would have sunken much further into debt myself when I too lost my full-time job for twelve months.

In addition to being a hard worker and patriotic citizen, Dad has been a friend to many through his participation in church choirs, as a performer, judge, competitior, coach and arranger in the Barbershop Harmony Society, as a member of the Pittsburgh Savoyards, as a member of the Alcoa Singers company choir, as a member of Toastmasters, and as an instructor for Junior Achievement. His fellowship and musicianship was so apparent that my fellow undergraduate contemporaries at the Alpha Zeta Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity inducted him as an honorary member.

He has been a role model for many and one of the only people I can turn to no matter what for advice and wisdom. He has shown me through his example what it means to be loyal, hard-working, and above all else, a family man.

Retirement is weighing a bit heavy on his mind, and he probably won't relish the attention I'm placing on it in this article. When you've relied on your own hard work to sustain you and your family for as long as he has, the prospect of consciously choosing to stop without going on to another job is a bit daunting. However, he has earned every second of every day that he spends in retirement with my mother, and I wish them both many more years of adventures and enjoyment.

I love you, Dad. Thanks for everything. Your wrist watch is beeping - go home.