My father is Jim Heffernan. He wrote a column for this newspaper and the Duluth Herald for 52 years when Duluth published morning and evening editions seven days a week. He served in many roles at the newspaper over the years, but he was best known for his column. For most of those 52 years, he wrote at least one column a week, and at one point he wrote two columns a week. My rough estimate is that he wrote more than 3,000 columns over his career. So it's clear what was going through his head and what he wrote for the paper.
When people from out of town ask me what he writes about, I always reply, “Usually humorous, but not always. Really, he writes about whatever's on his mind.”
Much of his career dates back to the pre-internet era, when nearly everyone had a morning paper delivered to their home. He was undoubtedly a local celebrity, with a column in the paper featuring his picture and adverts on buses, bus stop benches, billboards and newspaper stands. But I remember him saying, “If someone's a 'local celebrity,' then they're not a celebrity.”
Celebrity or not, as his kid in Duluth, whenever I mentioned my name, people would almost always say, “You're Jim Heffernan's son,” and they'd say, “I love his columns and I can't wait to read them. How does he come up with them?”
Sometimes people would say, “It must be interesting to be his son,” and even as a kid I began to realize that this probably meant they were reading his columns but didn't necessarily “get” them.
My favorite memory is when I was about 14 years old and I was caddying for a woman at Northland Country Club. After about four hours together, as we were walking down the 18th and final hole, the woman finally asked me if I was related to Jim. When I told her he was my father, she said, “Yeah, he's really opinionated.” I actually may have laughed out loud, because even at that young age, I knew he was literally being paid to have an opinion.
Being Jim's son means we've laughed a lot and it's always been really interesting. Just to name a few, he met Elvis, JFK, Buddy Holly, Walter Mondale, Jesse “The Body” Ventura, just about every politician that visited the city during his career and many of the musicians.
If you've been reading his columns for over 30 years, you probably remember some things about our family because he used to write about us when my sister and I were growing up. For example, we were kids who wanted our only beloved dog, Midnight. When Midnight died in 1994, my dad wrote a column that perfectly captured the grief of losing a beloved pet. I still refer people to that column when they lose a pet.
It was at my wedding that my father wrote, “I hugged more people that weekend than I've hugged in my entire life combined.” I also remember a column he wrote about my parents dropping off my sister at college and the emotions it caused my mom and dad. This fall, my wife and I will be dropping off our twin sons at college. It's funny how that 1988 column makes so much more sense to me now.
All three of my sons have learned to drive in the last three years, and it's my job to teach them. This has been especially fun for me, as it reminds me of the time my dad taught me how to drive. Many of the driving lessons he taught me have stayed with me and I've passed them on to my boys: “After you put gas in the car, walk around it to do a quick inspection,” “Slow down when you encounter uncertainty,” “Don't risk your life thinking someone will see the stop sign,” “In the winter, assume there will always be ice on the roads and be prepared for it.” Good lessons.
So on Father's Day, I reflected that, aside from driving lessons and a few other specific necessary lessons, my dad was not a “listen to me, son, and I'll show you how life works” type of dad. Most of what I learned from my dad I learned from watching him as a husband, son, brother, friend, son-in-law, brother-in-law, father-in-law, uncle, grandfather, and, of course, my dad.
Patrick Heffernan is a partner at Wheeler Associates in Duluth.
