Back in the 1970s and 1980s, a somewhat common idiom embroidered or painted or printed on pillows, artsy scraps of wood and greeting cards was, “Any man can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a daddy.”

Those words likely had not been spoken in 1909 when Mrs. John B. Dodd proposed a special day to honor fathers, including hers, William Smart, who had been left by the death of his wife during childbirth to raise six children in rural Washington state.

In her adult life, Mrs. Dodd realized the challenges her father had met head-on and conquered. She realized his strengths and his selflessness, two qualities that made him her daddy.

Today, we mark 100 years since the first observation of Father’s Day.

In those 100 years, everything has changed — and nothing has changed, even through the ’70s and ’80s. Any man can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a daddy.