His Father's Son

This trilogy, His Father's Son, seeks to characterize the colorful life of Julius Ludwig Frederick Becker Jr. through three totally unrelated careers. A fictionalized biography, it begins in Book I: He Wore a Clerical Collar, wherein the reader first meets the man who will become his father. Widowed shortly after migrating to this country, he purchased a grocery store and meat market in Detroit. Young Julius was apprenticed in the market as a butcher. However, she who would become his stepmother; she refused marriage unless the son studied for a professional career. The solution was his entry into the Lutheran ministry. He married while in his first parish. Shortly thereafter, he accepted a call to a church in Wayne County, Michigan. It was there that his ministry was interrupted by a religious dispute. He was defrocked! Subsequently, he suffered exceedingly poor health and had to resign his pastorate.

Book 2, His Father's Son: He Wore a Khaki Collar presents his efforts to rebuild his stamina and support a growing family in Inyo County, California. It was there where (because of the ever-patient guidance of his father-in-law) he began his second career: he would try becoming a farmer/rancher. After a decade of demanding labor and the growing demands of seven children, his health became a disturbing issue once again. However, he hiked from Inyo County to Los Angles County and a TB sanatorium. The professional diagnosis was that he had altitude sickness, not TB. He recovered in the sea-level milieu of the area.

Book 3, His Father's Son: He Wears a White Collar introduces the third career: he became a Swedish masseur. This final book is also dependent upon literary license but gives greater emphasis, however, to the genealogical aspects of his family in addition to glimpses into his "white collar" practice. Hence, book 3 contains a greater amount of actual history and verifiable biography. Although his life spanned three careers, he exited life as one faithfully committed to his first career: that as an ordained Lutheran minister.