The Truth About Role Models

So, what is the truth about role models? Your story contains many moving and fascinating elements. Your father's experience is a rich and powerful source of conscious and unconscious learning for you. His father's experience in turn shaped his life, consciously and unconsciously, in many conflicting ways.

Perhaps you kept your conclusions to yourself because you want these men to have their lives understood rather than interpreted. Or maybe your conclusions don't feel ready yet. But I think the most valuable way forward here is to ask the questions implicit in your title.