Like Father Like Son

By: Laura Giovanelli | JOURNAL REPORTER
Published: June 19, 2009

As Jim Schaller of Winston-Salem ages, he thinks it's spooky how much he looks like his dad, Francis.

They are among the readers who responded to our request for father and son photos, and now it's time to play a game with the results. It's our Father's Day challenge to you -- match the dad to the son. Maybe the apple doesn't fall far from the tree -- or maybe it does.

Even people who don't know Ben Neill Jr. know that he and his son are related, said his wife, Ann Neill of East Bend. "They look so much alike. Their arms are alike. They stand alike."

"Everyone's always said that," Ben Neill III, the son, said. But they also share traits that go deeper, he said. Neill is a musician, composer and professor at Ramapo College in Mahwah, N.J.; his father, once the mayor of East Bend, a social studies teacher at North Forsyth High School, and a staunch liberal Democrat in traditionally conservative Yadkin County, is 79 and has Alzheimer's disease.

"My dad was a very idealistic person," Neill said. "He was not afraid to take on difficult tasks. I think a lot of parents would have said, ‘Don't do music.' That's made a big difference in my life."

And it's just plain eerie how much Gunar Stowers of Winston-Salem looked like his father, Gene, when he was in his 20s -- they have the same chiseled tilt of the jaw, the same curl of the lips.

In 1967, Gunar's family sat for a formal portrait. Gene was 25. He wore a jacket and tie, and sat next to his wife and daughter, holding his 9-month-old son. Within months, he would be dead. A fighter pilot in Vietnam, he was shot down and killed in March 1968. Gunar was just about a year old.

But Gene's features show up in a 1988 fraternity picture of a then-20-year-old Gunar, who grew up to look very much like his dad. "I'm just very proud of him. It's weird how it happens like that, DNA and genes," Stowers said.

■ Laura Giovanelli can be reached at 727-7302 or at lgiovanelli@wsjournal.com.

LIKE FATHER LIKE SON: Match each dad with his son - Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge the answers