Highest Honors

If there is a angel dad on earth, it could well be Larry Thorpe. The Indiana man has been a good father to his three biological children, a caring adopting father to 31 others and a giving, foster father to nearly 300, including those with with severe autism, shaken baby syndrome and other debilitating conditions.

Former Philadelphia Eagles running back Ricky Watters is adopting his second mixed race son and encouraging others as fortunate in sports and life to join him. Which is praiseworthy, as is the legacy of Andrew Durning and John Videtto, who adopted three children and led a crusade of good works in hostile Florida to raise loving children and teach skeptical neighbors what can happen when papa bear and papa bear raise babies without a mama bear.

However, while quantity does not equal quality, and it would be wrong to diminish the hearts and acts of other fathers whose hearts open wider than expected, Thorpe should surely be in the running for "father of the millenium," or a "Nobel Prize for Fatherhood," or at the least for getting his face on stamps and currency.