Preface

So it begins.

Father and Son — A Memoir

So it begins.

My Father, Walter Dunning Powell III

How does a man whose reckless actions once made national headlines for months reinvent himself so completely that his own child never discovers his past? Until 1994, when I was twenty-eight years old, my father maintained his extraordinary secrets even from his grave where he laid since 1976. My mother, his friends, and our family all kept his past hidden from me during his life and long after his death.

Most of the secret-keepers who protected my father’s history are gone now, making certain parts of this memoir straightforward to write — there are no reputations left to protect, no one to embarrass or expose. But writing about the years I shared with my father presented a more complex challenge. My cousins, siblings, and family friends still live with their own versions of the past. Where does my story end and theirs begin? What pieces of our interwoven history are mine to tell?

Our family tapestry is rich with …