My Dad is the greatest man I have ever met

By Jeff Becraft

And the thing is, I’m not the only one that would say that.

And even further, it’s not just family members that would say that. There are all kinds of people who are friends, people he worked with, people he met in restaurants, etc., that would say he’s the greatest man that they have ever met.

My Dad is one of the most loving, kind, patient people I have ever known. It is from him that I learned to get the names of a waitress or a waiter and call them by their name and talk to them and treat them as a person.

He treated everybody with love and respect. Everybody.

Back in 2012, my Dad won the Arthur C. Meushaw Award at the Annual Subby Awards for the American Subcontractors Association of Metro Washington. The award recognizes an individual who has made a significant contribution to the construction industry throughout his career.

He was retired at that point. And he said himself that the other people who were candidates for the award had accomplished things much greater and more notable than he had. He didn’t see how he stood a chance of winning this award against these other nominees.

I wasn’t in the decision meetings… but I can tell you why my Dad won the award. Because for 55 years in construction working with a general contractor, he had treated the subcontractors with love and respect. And he had won their respect.

Which really tells us something when we start to talk about greatness. It’s not just by our accomplishments, even though my Dad has had some incredible accomplishments, that greatness is measured.  For the subcontractors who made the decision to honor my Dad with this award, on top of his achievements, it was because of his character, his integrity, and how he had treated them.

So when we think about measuring greatness, it’s not just great deeds. The greatness really comes from how we treat other people.

Jeff Becraft is the Director of Our Place of Hope and the Director Emeritus for Youth Corps and has dedicated much of his life to helping shift the vision of people’s lives. Our Place of Hope is a paradigm shift for people living with mental illness that encourages them to regain meaning, purpose, and hope for their lives. You can connect with Jeff at  [email protected].