Recently my uncle; the last surviving sibling of my mother, passed away leaving grandchildren, son and his wife of almost 60 years..and many of us "young ones" who grew up admiring this guy and what he made of himself. The only one in his family to graduate from college, went to work for DuPont at The Savannah River Nuclear Plant as a Mechanical Engineer...and was a pilot in the Army Air Corps during WWII.
I am incredibly proud to have known him, be closely related to him and hope for you there was somebody in your life equally respected