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The life of Richard “Dick” Carlson was a sprawling American odyssey that began in the quiet, sterile halls of an orphanage and ended in the warm, intentional presence of the family he built. His story is one of profound transformation, illustrating how a man can be born into the abandonment of the state and, through sheer force of will, forge a legacy defined by intellect, public service, and fierce paternal devotion. While he was known to the public as a diplomat, a journalist, and a director of the Voice of America, to those who sat at his dinner table, he was a philosopher-king who viewed the raising of sons as a high-stakes mission of intellectual survival.
His beginnings were marked by the kind of hardship that often breaks a person’s spirit before it has a chance to fully form. Abandoned as an infant and shuttled through the cold, uncertain machinery of the foster care system, Dick Carlson eventually found a permanent anchor through adoption. However, the scars of his early years did not manifest as bitterness; instead, they became the foundation of an unshakable resilience. He possessed a bone-deep understanding that nothing in this world is guaranteed—not a home, not a name, and certainly not the truth. This realization led him to the United States Marine Corps as a teenager, a move that replaced the instability of his youth with the rigid, life-altering discipline of military service.
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