My Dad Was an Assistant Manager at Burger King

Donald Trump working at McDonald's prompted me to repost this short piece, which I originally posted as a Note.

Around the time I was finishing my Ph. D., my 60+ father was fired from the job he’d had for over 20 years (since leaving the US Navy as a Master Chief). A local Burger King was the only place willing to hire a senior job applicant.

I was embarrassed that my father worked as an assistant manager at Burger King.

My family occupied that awkward space between the working class and the lower middle class. My siblings, cousins, and I paid our own way through college; our parents were nurses, held lesser managerial positions, or worked in factories.

I moved into an elite intellectual class. For a time, I resisted the lessons learned growing up on navy bases, in ethnic neighborhoods, and in 1970s suburbia.

Most of my colleagues have family roots in academia. I will never be one of them. I am an interloper. I entered the “life of the mind” after life experiences shaped my worldview.

How many of my colleagues would work at Burger King if fired from the academy?

I am no longer embarrassed that my dad worked as an assistant manager at a Burger King.

If he were still alive, I would tell him I am proud of him. If he were still alive, I would tell him that not many men would do what he did—take a job “beneath” them—to keep the family secure. If he were still alive, I would tell him that he has become my barometer for what a good man is.

As sometimes happens, my dad found a job better suited to his talents. He happily taught at the Great Lakes Naval Base until ill health kept him bedridden.

As sometimes happens, we don’t realize the significance of an event in the moment.