Thoughts on Dad
Scot Fodi said while his father, James, kept his emotions and beliefs largely to himself over the years, he was anything but quiet about his competitive streak regarding sports. “Especially during his years of playing softball when I was a young kid,” Fodi said.
When the younger Fodi began his career officiating basketball games, his father’s focus turned from arguing with umpires at softball games to his son’s advancement in basketball officiating.
“To this day, 24 years since I became an official, he and mom still come to about 90 percent of my games each season,” said the 43-year-old Fodi.
Fodi said his father’s attitude of “other people first” while he was growing up apparently influenced him, as a close friend recently told Fodi that he, too, always thinks of helping others first.
Fodi said his father did little shouting when his young son would make a poor decision, instead relying on a pair of dreaded facial expressions that would communicate either mild or severe disdain for an infraction.
“As his son, his ‘look’ told me when I screwed up a little or really screwed up big time,” Fodi said, “and there were one or two of those ‘really screwed up’ situations.”
Fodi also figures he got his moderate political stance from his parents, who never touted a party. Instead, the Fodis voted for the best man for the job in an election.
“I think I get my political philosophy from him, to be honest,” Fodi said.
He also learned to do his very best in any job he undertook, again, without any preaching from his father.
“Dad worked for 40-plus years for the U.S. Postal Service in downtown Pittsburgh, retiring in the early 2000s,” Fodi said. “I don’t know if he loved his job, but he did like it, and he made certain that he did his job very well.”
Today, three generations of Fodis — James, Scot, and Scot’s 7-year-old son Grant — enjoy spending time together as often as possible.
The middle generation’s representative hopes his young son picks up on his grandfather’s wisdom and absorbs the important life lessons Fodi learned as a boy and young man in the 1970s and ’80s.
