This Father’s Day, The Daily Item chose to highlight dads in local communities who have stood out as exceptional fathers. The Marblehead Dad featured in The Daily Item story is Fred Ferris. Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there!
Fred Ferris, owner of Marblehead Hardware, which he’s owned for four years, is the father of two girls, Ellie and Maddie.
“There isn’t one answer to what being a father means,” he said. “It changes. It starts with diapers and monsters under the bed, moves on to teaching them how to ride a bike, and then you blink and it’s boyfriends, breakups, and ‘Should I buy a car?’”
Through the laughter and stories, one thing is clear: fatherhood, for him, has never been static; it shifts with each stage of his daughters’ lives.
Ferris and his wife made a conscious decision to settle down in Marblehead, moving from Nantucket.
“We lucked out,” he says. “This town has character. It’s not cookie-cutter. There’s a sense of history and a mix of locals and oddballs — you just have to open your eyes to see them.”
When asked about favorite fatherhood memories, he pauses. “Too many,” he finally says. “But, I saw Paul Simon with my oldest daughter. That’ll stick with me. And a few years ago, I drove across the country with the other one to pick up a yellow pickup truck in Little Rock, Arkansas.”
Dance recitals, road trips, quiet coffee mornings, and big debates — they all form a patchwork of moments that have defined his experience as a dad, Ferris said.
Fatherhood, he adds, has also taught him humility and restraint. “Sometimes, being a good father means not saying anything.
“Some days you’re a great father in the morning, and a terrible one by dinner,” he laughs. “It all changes.”
He added, but the one that’s constant is that “I’ve never taken being a father for granted.”
