SANDPOINT — Local businessman and former Sandpoint High School athletics coach Al Beard will be celebrating Father’s Day with a daughter he never knew he had.

“I wanted a daughter my whole life,” said Beard, who was already a father to four sons.

Jill Benard’s three-decade quest to find her father began at age 13 and centered around a list of names she was provided. When those potential leads turned into dead ends, she was given Beard’s name and the name of his son, Ryan.

Cynthia Oberloh, Beard’s fiancee, said Benard reached out to Ryan Beard on Facebook and asked if his father was named Al. Ryan Beard responded that it was and Benard asked if she could contact his father as part of her search. Al Beard agreed and the two came got into direct contact with one another.

“Al agreed to a DNA test and within one and half weeks the results proved Al was Jill’s biological father,” Oberloh said.

Benard, a corporate executive in Las Vegas, arrived in Sandpoint on Thursday and is staying through today, Oberloh said.

“I didn’t know what to think at first,” Al Beard said of learning he had a child out there he was unaware of. “We both cried a little bit.”

Benard said he met the child’s mother in Orange County, Calif., more than 40 years ago. He was aware she had become pregnant, but believed the father was her on-again/off-again boyfriend.

Moreover, Benard’s mother never informed him that Bernard was his child

“I thought that the child was his all that time,” Beard said.

Benard and Beard caught up quickly and are in daily contact via text, phone or both.

“It’s great. It’s really, really great,” he said.

Beard discovered that she and Benard look a lot alike and their minds operate in similar ways. “We’re both outgoing. We’re both pretty confident with ourselves and we’re finding we’re more and more alike,” Beard said.

They also happen share the same birthday in June.

Benard obtained degrees from University of California in Los Angeles and has managed food and beverage operations in the casino industry.

“She’s done really good,” said Beard.

Beard is a former football and baseball coach at SHS and operates Omni Building Maintenance in Sandpoint.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.