My friend, Arthur, ran away from home when he was 16. He lied about his age and joined the Army. His parents, immigrants from Italy, were powerless to intervene. Art was a big man; his father was much smaller.

Art's dad earned his living as a carpenter. He never owned a car. He went to work on the bus carrying his carpenter's toolbox. In those days, a carpenter was hired after the boss inspected his toolbox at the job site. One needed certain tools, arranged just so, and your saws had to be correctly sharpened.

Art's dad expected him to be a carpenter. That made sense because all the men in the family had been carpenters for generations. When Art finished sixth grade, he was taken out of school and went with his father to work. Art realized that when he learned to be a carpenter, he could leave home. Freedom was available just as soon as Art mastered the trade.

Art ran away in mid-1940, and joined the Army, which moved him from New Jersey to Hawai'i. Preparations were under way to arm O'ahu against the Japanese threat. The Army found out that Art knew how to run surveying instruments and could lay out the work to be built from the blueprints. Art soon was traveling O'ahu, driving in stakes and setting heights to locate the structures soon to be erected.

When Pearl Harbor was bombed, Art was taken to headquarters, then located at Punch Bowl Mountain. Art recalls that he was terrified seeing the worry on the face of the commanding officers.

When the war ended, Art finished his education and went on to the New Jersey Institute of Technology, where he learned to design the structures he already knew how to build. I worked with Art on a number of major projects up and down the East Coast. He was so talented that he won the respect of the union bosses, and journeymen would ask him to make comments on their work.

Art always had the right attitude. He was ever doing things to help others do a better job or to do something an easier way. He was a true teacher, a man who knew how to instruct or correct in a way that brought improvement on behalf of the one he was instructing. He often remembered his dad, saying: "If Pop could see me now."

He would recall the days he stood under his dad up on the scaffold above. Art stood at attention below waiting for his father's command to hand up the tool or the piece of lumber needed. Art learned to be patient, and how to please his demanding father.

More than that, he never forgot that his dad had taught him the skills Art used to excel at his job. Art respected and loved his father.

Scripture says a wise man makes his father glad. A wise daughter makes her father glad. Do you make your father glad? If you do, you will be the beneficiary of that act.

H. Murray Hohns of Makiki is an associate pastor at New Hope Christian Fellowship. Expressions of Faith is a column that welcomes written works by leaders in faith and spirituality. E-mail faith@honoluluadvertiser.com or call 525-8035. Articles submitted to The Advertiser may be published or distributed in print, electronic or other forms.