of America

A Proclamation

By tradition, the third Sunday in June is celebrated as Father's Day, a day on which we honor our Nation's fathers.

In honoring fathers, we honor families. Families are the bedrock of our Nation's strength, and fathers play an indispensable role in forming vital, whole families. They serve as models and guides for their sons and daughters and help to pass on to the next generation the heritage of our civilization.

Being a good father is an art that cannot be taught in schools. The main ingredient for success is simply a caring attitude. Fathers who love their families can never completely fail, and children will always remember the influence of a father who tries to do his best. For many children, the memory of a loving father will be the most important influence in their lives.

The love a father feels for his children can take many forms. The only constant is that he shares their lives in a special and irreplaceable way. He feels their hurts as well as their joys, their pains as well as their triumphs. In this way, he plays an indispensable role in their moral development, and they return to him a love and satisfaction that cannot be found anywhere else.

On Father's Day, we pay tribute to all in our society who have taken on the responsibilities and joys of fatherhood. Whether our fathers are near at hand or a continent away, with their families or watching from the light of eternity, we take this day to remember them, to say our thanks for the years they have given us, and to ask that they receive God's blessings.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, in accordance with the joint resolution of the Congress (36 U.S.C. 142a), do hereby proclaim Sunday, June 16, 1985, as Father's Day. I invite the States and communities and the people of the United States to observe that day with appropriate ceremonies as a mark of gratitude and abiding affection for their fathers. I direct government officials to display the flag of the United States on all Federal government buildings, and I urge all Americans to display the flag at their homes and other suitable places on that day.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this thirteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and ninth.

Ronald Reagan

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 10:21 a.m., June 14, 1985]