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“What would Harry do?” is a question author Sherman Baldwin asks himself when faced with a difficult decision. Henry “Harry” deForest Baldwin is his father who died in 1997 at the age of sixty-six after a battle with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Harry was a man of character.

This personal memoir captures that character and the strong values Harry exhibited to his family and friends during his lifetime. Harry lived by the credos that character is what you do when no one’s looking, to do the right thing when faced with a difficult choice, to be a good friend, and to persevere when life seems hard.

Growing Up with Harry represents a touching, insightful, and intensely human series of stories offering a glimpse of Harry’s life in Roxbury, Connecticut- from his work as a lawyer, to his love of dogs, gardening, and the outdoors. The stories reflect his beliefs in honor, duty, courage, commitment, honesty, integrity, persistence, and love of family.

Offering universal life lessons, this memoir demonstrates that families are a sum of their stories. Whether the stories are happy or sad, they have value because they pass life lessons to the next generations.

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I recently read Sherman Baldwin’s “Ironclaw” and found it to be a very accurate representation of the life in a Navy squadron operating off of an aircraft carrier. I liked it so well That when I found he had written a second book I immediately ordered it. “Growing up with Harry “is a book about a different subject, however it struck a chord with me because it allowed me to analyze my relationship with my own father. Harry was a lawyer, and my dad was a pipefitter so they had different backgrounds, but they taught many of the same lessons to their sons. Sherman Baldwin has the ability to make the words jump off the page into your mind. In the Navy we described people who could do this as wordsmiths.

Sherman Baldwin’s Growing Up with Harry is the story of a real adult – a hard-working lawyer, a loyal and generous friend, and a superb father. The book is filled with short chapters, each containing a single, personal, often humorous story with titles like “Determination,” “Trust,” “Fun,” and “Honesty.” Some chapters are funny (like “Martinis’), and others are simply emotionally moving (like “Patriotism”). If one wants to learn how human character affects others, and if one wants to know what makes a great father, here’s a book for you.

Sherman Baldwin’s book is an endearing read. It is something I have found that can be effectively conveyed in its family-centric beauty if you read it to family members, especially one’s children, in the short chapters that form the structure of the book. It is very rich in the values, traditions, and reflections that many would want their own families to develop or validate. A wonderful, inspiring, and heartwarming read.

Sherman Baldwin has composed a concise, well written and remarkably poignant book that captures the lessons of life and of love that his father Harry imparted to him and his family through his lifetime. This book has undeniably special meaning for the Baldwin family and is a gift to Sherman’s children, most especially, who will grow up without ever really knowing their grandfather but through this book will learn much about the gentle manner and character that guided Harry through his life. It was certainly a life lived as an example to others, and through this book others may find great lessons and learnings to apply to their lives. It is a great gift to a new Dad or an old one. If Tim Russert has a reading list in heaven, I am sure that “Growing Up With Harry” is on his top 10. It should be for many of us, too.