Obituary Examples for a Father

Fathers are often the harder obituary to write, not because there is less to say but because many of them said less. The examples below lean on what they did, which is usually where the love was kept. All names and places are invented.

The short notice (about 60 words)

Walter James Kowalski, 79, of Erie, died on September 8, 2026. A machinist at GE for thirty-eight years and a veteran of the U.S. Army, he is survived by his wife of fifty-four years, Helen; his sons Mark and Paul; and five grandchildren. Visitation Thursday 4 to 7 p.m. at Brugger Funeral Home; funeral Friday at 10:00 a.m. at Holy Trinity.

The standard obituary (about 220 words)

Walter James Kowalski, 79, of Erie, died on September 8, 2026, at Hamot Medical Center.

Walt was born in Erie in 1947 and, apart from two years with the Army in Germany, never saw a reason to leave. He worked thirty-eight years as a machinist at the GE locomotive plant and could tell you which engines on the line were his by the sound. He married Helen Nowak in 1972 after meeting her at a polka dance he claimed he had been dragged to.

He was not a talker. He showed up. He rebuilt the transmission on every car his sons ever owned, stood in the rain at four hundred Little League games, and drove to Pittsburgh twice a month for eleven years to sit with his mother. When he did speak, it was usually to say "measure it again."

He is survived by his wife, Helen; his sons, Mark (Julie) and Paul (Denise); five grandchildren, Emma, Jack, Owen, Lily and Nate; and his brother, Stan. He was preceded in death by his parents and his sister, Irene.

Visitation will be held Thursday, September 11, from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. at Brugger Funeral Home. A funeral Mass will be celebrated Friday at 10:00 a.m. at Holy Trinity Church, with burial at Calvary Cemetery. The family suggests memorial gifts to the Erie City Mission.

A father who was a veteran

List the service plainly: branch, years, where, and any decorations, in that order. Families sometimes get the unit wrong; check a discharge paper (the DD-214) if you can.

Sgt. Raymond Ellis Turner, USMC (Ret.), 84, of Jacksonville, died on August 21, 2026.

Ray enlisted in the Marine Corps at eighteen and served twenty-two years, including two tours in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Bronze Star. He rarely spoke about it, and when he did it was to talk about the men, not himself. After retiring he taught shop at Lee High School for nineteen years and put more kids into trades than any guidance counsellor in the county.

He is survived by his wife, Barbara; his daughter, Michelle Turner Hayes (Curtis); his son, Ray Jr.; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. Services with military honors will be held at Jacksonville National Cemetery on Friday, August 29, at 11:00 a.m.

A father who farmed

Elmer Dean Haskins, 91, of Ida Grove, Iowa, died on the farm on September 1, 2026, which is where he would have chosen.

Elmer farmed the same 320 acres his grandfather broke, through seventy harvests, three floods and the eighties. He believed in early mornings, cash, John Deere green and the Lutheran church, roughly in that order. He never took a vacation that did not involve looking at somebody else's corn.

He was married to Vera for sixty-three years until her death in 2021. He is survived by his sons, Dean and Gary, who farm the ground now; his daughter, Joan Haskins Miller; eight grandchildren; and fourteen great-grandchildren. A funeral will be held at Trinity Lutheran on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. Lunch follows, and there will be enough.

A father who died suddenly

A sudden death leaves no time to prepare, and the obituary is often the first thing the family writes down. It does not need to explain what happened. It needs to say who he was.

André Luis Bautista, 52, of Phoenix, died unexpectedly on September 14, 2026.

André was a lineman for APS for twenty-six years and the kind of neighbour who had your gate fixed before you knew it was broken. He coached his daughters' softball teams for a decade, grilled for the whole street every Fourth of July, and was in the middle of restoring a 1971 Bronco he had promised to finish "by Christmas" for six Christmases.

He is survived by his wife, Monica; his daughters, Sofia and Isabel; his parents, Luis and Carmen Bautista; and his brothers, Marco and Daniel. A celebration of his life will be held Saturday, September 27, at 4:00 p.m. at Encanto Park. The Bronco will be there. It is not finished.

The very short line for a program or card

Walter James Kowalski, 1947 – 2026. Machinist, Marine, husband, father. Measure it again.

Phrases to avoid

• "A hard worker and a family man." True of most fathers, so it distinguishes none. Say what the work was and what the family got from it.
• "He never met a stranger." Only if he really did not. Many fathers met plenty of strangers and preferred it that way; "he had six friends for sixty years" is a better sentence for that man.
• "He is now at peace." Use it if it is your belief. If not, let the facts of his life end the obituary; they are stronger than a consolation.