In tribute to dads this Father’s Day, we feature children who, by virtue of their father’s direct or indirect influence on their lives, are either working in the same company as their dads or in the same profession. We’ve got journalists, pastors, doctors, and insurance agents and investments agents.

RICHARD AND CHRISTOPHER JAMES

Mayberry Investments Limited

Richard James, 57, started with the company as a security guard 10 years ago. He now serves the organisation as a bearer and is delighted that his son joined the company as trading desk assistant a year and six months ago.

“One of the things I like the most about us working for the same organisation is that I get to see how my son progresses as an employee and as a young man,” the elder James told Career & Education last week.

Christopher, 19, loves the idea too.

“I like the fact that my dad gets to see my growth day-to-day,” he said.

Christopher said he always admired that his father worked at Mayberry and wanted to join the team since he was attending school.

“I started out with Mayberry serving as an intern for three years, and then the position opened up, so I applied, and I was hired,” he said.

He believes having family around, especially children, brings motivation, comradery and togetherness.

GARFIELD AND SANJAY MYERS

Jamaica Observer

Garfield Myers heads the Observer’s South/Central Bureau, based in Mandeville, Manchester. He is a 42-year veteran journalist, having entered the profession in 973, six weeks shy of his 18th birthday. His son Sanjay, 32, is a sports reporter with six years under his belt, not including previous freelancing work.

“I feel he has been doing quite well,” says the elder Myers of his son. “He has a good command of what he has to do. He has always had a quick understanding of the intricacies involved and I think he does well with the written word.”

Sanjay says he was not directly influenced by his father to become a journalist. He calls it a fortunate coincidence.

“I don’t recall him ever saying ‘you have to follow in my footsteps’, but I always took confidence in him telling me my writing wasn’t too bad and I felt it would be fairly good at it especially since I enjoy most sports,” he says.

Though they don’t work together directly, Sanjay says the best thing about working with daddy is “lean(ing) on him at times for advice on how to handle certain stories”.

MICHAEL AND CHRISTOPHER LAWE

Sagicor Life Jamaica

Eleven years ago when Christopher Lawe, manager of Sagicor Life Jamaica Limited’s Holborn Branch, completed his flying hours and studies in aviation, he headed straight for a career in insurance, joining his dad Michael at Sagicor.

“I entered the business at age 22 (as his father did) and share the same contract and hire date with my dad, October 1,” Christopher tells Career & Education.

Another thing he has in common with his dad is the branch manager title, except that the branch is different. Michael was manager of the Liguanea branch before retiring in April.

“My dad is a master at his craft and one of the top recruiters over the years in Sagicor/Life of Jamaica, so I’m thinking maybe he had a plan. I had the honour of being mentored, trained and developed by the industry’s best, my dad,” Christopher says proudly.

Michael, who has committed the last 43 years to selling insurance, says he is proud to have witnessed his son’s trajectory over the years, becoming one of the youngest branch managers at the company, and leading a team that consistently breaks records called ‘SPARTANS’ for Sagicor.

“Working with my son (has given me) a close eye on how much he has developed into a responsible young leader and also gaining much respect and admiration from his peers and his seniors. Grooming him to where he is now, being a top performer over several years, I have admired how he has maintained his humility and his crave for the advice and wisdom of his peers and seniors — though he is very opinionated,” Michael says.

And another of Michael’s sons might soon be joining the ranks as Chris reports looking forward to recruiting his younger brother into the business once he completes university abroad.

Jodi & Owen James Cornwall Regional Hospital/UHWI

Thirty-one year old Jodi James and her father Owen Bancroft James, 76, are medical doctors. Jodi said that it was from observing her father that she decided to venture into the medical field.

“I always felt like my father was helping people [and] I wanted to help people. Plus, I love biology,” she says.

She practices at Cornwall Regional Hospital, while her dad, during the span of his career, worked at various hospitals in the United Kingdom, where he studied, as well as the University Hospital of the West Indies, in St Andrew.

The elder James says he did not exert any undue influence on any of his children with respect to career choice.

“I did not yearn for any of my children to choose the same career path as I did, being aware of the difficulties in studying and practicing medicine, as well as the need for children to choose for themselves. So when Jodi chose medicine I was a bit surprised, especially as she had shown or professed other interests, e.g. a flair for languages.

“However, I was still pleased that you had done so,” he says directly to Jodi. “It is, after a all, a fine profession.”

The father says he enjoys the fact that he and his daughter have mutal interests and expresses the hope that she continues to make a great contribution to the physical and social well-being of the country; just like her dad.

ERROL AND VINCENT THOMPSON

Greater Bethlehem Temple Apostolic Church

“I feel like I have passed on a legacy,” Vincent Thompson says after listening to his son, Bishop Errol Thompson, preach.

The Bishop is pastor of Greater Bethlehem Temple Apostolic Church in Stony Hill, the same church his father lead before him. He is also the pastor of the Yallahs, St Thomas branch of the church

The bishop recalls, at a young age, watching his father preach, only to mimic his dad in his spare time, hoping to one day be like him.

“He was a very good preacher,” says the 61-year-old son. “It was years later when the pastor of the church left that I got the opportunity to fill that shoe with the help of the Lord, who blessed and gifted me with the pastoral ability.”

The elder Thompson, now 88-years-old, is extremely proud of his son, even though he is not in Jamaica anymore to enjoy his son’s sermons firsthand.