As if I hadn’t had enough family history for a spell, when I got back to Göteborg today, something prompted me to check the date. I knew the 13th was significant somehow. And then I remembered. It was my father’s birthday and since he was born in 1921, so had Ernest Lloyd Raboff been alive, he would have been 100 today.

While an epic failure at parenting, there’s plenty of evidence of his creativity. Interestingly, Ernest’s college buddy and longtime friend, Fred Nicholas, just turned 101 years old. Every time I’m in L.A. I either have lunch or dinner with him. Have to make it out there soon.

The portrait above is from when my father was about to enter World War II as a war correspondent in France and Italy for the Army paper “Stars and Stripes”

Here’s an interview with him from 1966. Here are some of my father’s books in the Art for Children series. Click here to see his IMDB profile page.