Oct. 12, 2004, was a Tuesday, a beautiful bonus summer-like blue sky sunshiny autumn day. It was a day I will never forget — not the sunshine or the sounds or the words that came out of a doctor’s mouth as I stood alone in the “quiet room” at Kootenai Medical Center waiting for my mother to arrive. “We tried to resuscitate him but he was already gone.”

Poof! With a single sentence my world tilted on its axis. Before 8 a.m. on that beautiful sunshiny morning my father was dead at age 75. My daddy, my friend, my hero, my touchstone. Most of the rest of the morning was a blur of calling family and helping my broken hearted mother navigate the details of what must be done in those first few hours.

It was a Tuesday which meant I was on deadline for this column and after decades in the newspaper business I respected deadlines and also knew that I needed to have one thing that morning be normal and routine. My father was a very public person and word of his passing would be news. I phoned Press Editor Mike Patrick from the parking lot of the hospital and confirmed that my father had passed away and told him I’d have my column to him by deadline that afternoon. He assured me that I didn’t need to concern myself with a column that week and I told him that I had to do exactly that.

Early afternoon found me unable to focus on anything except a world I no longer recognized. After 52 years what in the world would my world be like without my father. I searched my archives for a Father’s Day column I’d written and that was published five years before, in June of 1999. So on that first day of my life without Dad I made deadline.

There will never come a time that I don’t catch myself reaching for the phone to call to share something with my dad, a laugh or an indignation or a head shaking current event. When I find myself missing him the most is also when I’m the most grateful to have had a father worth missing. Below is the column that was reprinted on Oct. 13, 2004.

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My father’s been called a lot of things in his 70 years on this earth. Carpetbagger, muckracker, right winger and tax activist readily come to mind.

Decades ago I envied friends whose fathers were dentists and accountants. What a perfect world it would be to have a father who wasn’t always trying to change it. When I was younger I took it very personal when he was portrayed in the public and in the media as a rablerouser or a buffoon.

Call him what you will, to me he’s Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny, and like most daughters, I think my daddy’s the smartest man in the whole wide world.

It’s not easy being the child of a highly visible parent whose opinions are often controversial. It took me years and becoming an actual bonafide adult myself, to realize how my life has been shaped by him. He taught me to respect all opinions, even those with which I don’t agree. He showed me by example that following your heart and your convictions isn’t always popular but it’s important. His never-failing sense of humor helped me put a lot of things in my own life in perspective through the years.

When I committed a teenage transgression, I remorsefully asked him if he still loved me. His response is a lesson I later used to become a better parent myself. He said, “I won’t always like the things you do, but I’ll always love you.”

Can there be a better gift than unconditional love?

My father’s always taken the time to be a good friend and neighbor. He’s been unashamed to be passionate about his faith, his family, his country and his community. He instilled a sense of volunteerism in his children as well as the value of doing good deeds quietly.

When I was younger I resented the time he spent on behalf of strangers, fighting for a cause. I wanted his undivided attention. Now, as what society defines as a senior citizen, he has more energy than I can easily muster. If I want to keep up with him or know where he is on any given day, I just have to pick up a newspaper. When most men his age have taken up golf or fishing, my father’s favorite hobby is still trying to make a difference.

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, who knows the great devotion, and spends himself in a worthy cause; if he fails, at least he fails by daring greatly, so he’ll never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.”

No one ever has or likely will ever call Ron Rankin a timid soul.

Ronald D. Rankin, 1929-2004.

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Places to go: Today from 4-7 p.m. TAILS Pet Partners Expo, 1600 Seltice Way.

On Friday there’s lots to do ... Brad Richter and Viktor Uzar in concert 7 p.m. at the Jacklin Center, www.thejacklincenter.org; Artwalk from 5-7 p.m. in downtown Coeur d’Alene; St.Vinny’s Annual Fashion Show, 5 p.m. at the Coeur d’Alene Inn; Rice for a Reason, Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy benefit for Hurricane Matthew relief in Haiti at the school, 4904 N. Duncan Drive, 5-7 p.m..

Saturday at 7:30 a.m. Hayden Lake Marathon starts at Honeysuckle Beach, Running Shoes and Micro Brews fun run at Kiwanis Park 2-6 p.m. Info: www.postfallsidaho.org. Also KEA’s Junk 2 Funk fashion show at 6 p.m. at the Coeur d’Alene Eagles on Sherman Avenue.

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Happy birthday to Tom Elliott, Jeff Yates, Donnie Murrell, Alan Brown, Kathy Getchius, Kirk Hjeltness and McKade Brown.

Thursday celebrants are Nick Smoot, Jeff Johnson, Margaret Eddings, Derek Scharf, Serena Pratt, Kathy Pierce (70!) and Judy Bennett.

On Friday Randy Bohach, Leslie Lien, Jeff Elder, Dave Chambers, Karen Hammond, Linda Polley, Gary Ghramm (75!) and Suzanne Metzger put on their party hats.

Cheers on Saturday to Braxton Kurtz, Don Sausser, Dee Jameson, Shawn Gust, Beth Peters, Katie Smith, Wayne Hammond, Elizabeth McGregor, Laurie Dixon, Beth Myles, Greg Cossette, Dave Smith, Peyton Brown and Patty Cheesman.

Born on Oct. 16 are Jordan Hudson, Misti Flood, Kathie Lyon, Pam Nygaard, Brad Perry and Mike Farquhar.

Faith Tonna, Laurie Cook, Dana Albanese, Rosemary Fuller and Karen Deering will make a wish on Monday.

Oct. 18 birthdays belong to Arlene Pischner, Keith Erickson, Terry Gurno, Will Wolff, Kevin Clement, Kathy Reid and Lauri Armon.

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Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press and Kerri can be contacted on Facebook or via email mainstreet@cdapress.com. Follow her on Twitter @kerrithoreson.