Growing up in Chickasha in the 1970s was a pretty special time. Downtown was hopping with retail and Chickasha had recently been recognized as an All American City by the National Civic League. For a kid coming of age here, it felt like the center of the world. My first job was Downtown at the old Dixie Department Store. Back then, you could walk downtown on a Saturday and see people on every block, every storefront lit up and busy. It was a fun time to be here, and an even better time to be a kid with a front-row seat to a community that believed in itself. At the center of my world was my dad. To me, he was simply my hero. To most everyone else, he was their driver’s ed teacher, their VICA sponsor, or the assistant principal at Chickasha High School. A lot of you reading this may have sat in his classroom, ridden in the driver’s ed car with your white-knuckle grip on the steering wheel, or visited with him in the hallways at CHS. His name was John P. Cowan. Forty years ago, just days before Father’s Day, my hero passed away from heart problems. It’s hard to believe it has been that long. Anniversaries like that have a way of making you look back, not just on the person you lost, but on the place and the people who helped shape you. As I reflect on growing up here, and on what called me back home in 2020, it’s easy to see my dad’s fingerprints all over that decision. He cast a big shadow, not in the sense of something to get out from under, but as a place of protection and purpose to stand within. Any time I’m having a rough day, I drive down the street named after him after he passed away. Thank you to then Mayor Charlie Furguson for making that street dedication happen. He was a husband and a father, but he was also something else… he was invested in this town. He believed in Chickasha, in its kids, in its future. Whether it was teaching teenagers how to parallel park, helping students in VICA learn skills that would carry them into careers, or serving as assistant principal at the high school, he poured himself into this community. He understood that building a life wasn’t just about taking care of your own household, it was also about taking care of your hometown. This past Sunday, the Chamber hosted a Flag Day celebration in Downtown Chickasha, just half a block from where I worked my very first job. That event, full of flags, families, and familiar faces was held as part of our ongoing effort to honor the 25th anniversary of Chickasha being recognized as an All American City and America’s 250 th birthday. Standing there, so close to where my working life began, watching our community gather in celebration of our country and our town, I couldn’t help but think about him, and about all the fathers who came before us. As we celebrate Father’s Day in Chickasha, I want to say thank you to all the incredible fathers in our community today. Those raising kids, coaching teams, leading classrooms, running businesses, volunteering at church, and showing up in a thousand quiet ways that may never make the paper but absolutely make a difference. And I especially want to thank my father, John P. Cowan, for standing up so many years ago and casting a shadow that I am honored to stand in today. His example is one of the main reasons I came back home. The older I get, the more clearly I see that the best way I can honor him is to try, in my own small way, to do for today’s Chickasha what he did for mine. The truth is, those fathers from Chickasha’s past, men like my dad and so many others whose names you could add to this list are still impacting our community today. Their influence lives on in the lives they touched, the students they taught, the values they modeled, and the love they had for this town. This Father’s Day, as you fire up the grill, make a phone call, visit a grave, or look at an old photograph, I hope you’ll take a moment to think about the fathers and father-figures who helped make Chickasha the place we’re proud to call home. We are, in many ways, still walking in their shadow which helps us appreciate #TheGoodStuff!